What Does Luke 12:36 Mean in the King James?
And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “wait” is built from the Greek verb for receiving: their waiting is already a form of welcome.
THE MEANING
You are pictured as someone whose attention is turned toward the one you expect. The hour may be unknown, yet when the knock comes, the door opens immediately. The waiting has a direction: it is readiness to receive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that you must know exactly when someone will arrive before you can be ready to welcome them.
THE ROOT
προσδέχομαι
prosdechomai
GROWS FROM
δέχομαι
to receive, accept, or welcome
The verb translated “wait” carries the sense of expecting someone with welcome. You are not just passing time until the arrival; the waiting itself is turned toward receiving, so the knock meets a welcome already prepared.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: receive, accept, welcome
δέχομαι
This base verb makes the receiving inside the word for waiting visible.
ekdechomai: expect, wait for
ἐκδέχομαι
This related compound also grows from dechomai, linking expectation with the language of receiving.
THE PATTERN
Expectation becomes visible as readiness when the awaited one arrives.
I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.THE THREAD
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.Luke uses the same Greek verb, prosdechomai, for Simeon waiting for Israel’s consolation. In both verses, waiting carries the shape of expectant reception: what is awaited is welcomed when it comes.
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