What Does Luke 12:38 Mean in the King James?
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
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
Here, the night watch is both a span of time and a word of guarding: flourishing is being found ready after the wait.
THE MEANING
When the master comes in the second or third watch, the servants are found as they were charged to be. Their flourishing holds across the wait and is visible when he arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a long wait makes readiness meaningless: the blessing still meets the servants in the later watch.
THE ROOT
φυλακή
phylakē
GROWS FROM
φυλακ-
Guarding, keeping watch, or holding in custody; also a period of night watch.
“watch” in this verse is phylakē. English emphasizes the clock time, while the Greek word also belongs to the language of guarding. The second and third watches therefore carry both the passing night and the question of whether the servants are still found in their entrusted state.
ALSO GROWS
phylassō: To guard, keep, or watch over.
φυλάσσω
This related verb gives the night watch an active quality of keeping.
phylax: A guard or keeper.
φύλαξ
The word family links the watch with the person who remains responsible through it.
μακάριοι
makarioi
GROWS FROM
μακαρ-
Flourishing; in a fortunate or well-off state.
“blessed” in this verse is makarioi. The verse names the servants as flourishing when they are found ready, even in the later hours of the night. The word describes their present condition, not a reward postponed until the wait is over.
ALSO GROWS
makarizō: To call someone flourishing or fortunate.
μακαρίζω
This verb shows the word family can name the recognition of a flourishing state.
makarismos: A declaration of flourishing or good fortune.
μακαρισμός
This related noun echoes the verse’s naming of these servants as flourishing.
THE PATTERN
Flourishing is visible in readiness that remains through an uncertain wait.
Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.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:Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.THE THREAD
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.Matthew uses the same Greek word, φυλακή (phylakē, “watch”), for the hour when an unexpected thief may come. Together, the verses place readiness against an arrival whose hour cannot be scheduled.
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