What Does Luke 13:1 Mean in the King James?
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilæans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
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 Greek word for “mingled” joins the Galilaeans’ blood and their sacrifices into one horrifying mixture.
THE MEANING
You hear of human blood mixed with sacrificial blood: violence enters the act of worship itself. The verse leaves brutality and sacred ritual in the same scene, without making the horror easier to look at.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that sacred rites keep violence outside is undone here: bloodshed is already present in the scene of worship.
THE ROOT
ἔμιξεν
emixen
GROWS FROM
μιγ-
mig-
to mix or mingle
“mingled” in this verse is emixen. The Greek verb makes this more than a report that two things happened together: it pictures them joined. Human blood and sacrificial blood become one horrifying mixture in the sentence.
ALSO GROWS
mígnymi: to mix or mingle
μίγνυμι
The verse’s verb is a form of this word, which names the act of bringing things together.
migma: a mixture or compound
μίγμα
This related noun names what mixing produces, sharpening the image of human blood and sacrificial blood joined in one scene.
θυσιῶν
thysiōn
GROWS FROM
θυ-
thy-
to offer in sacrifice, including the slaughter of an offering
The noun for “sacrifices” belongs to the family of θύω (thyō, “to offer in sacrifice or slaughter for sacrifice”). This shared word-family places Pilate’s killing beside a ritual act already marked by the taking of life.
ALSO GROWS
thyō: to offer sacrifice or slaughter for sacrifice
θύω
The noun in the verse grows from this verb family, which keeps the bodily act of sacrifice in view.
thysiastērion: altar, a place of sacrifice
θυσιαστήριον
This related word carries the sacrificial family into the place of offering, deepening the collision between worship and bloodshed in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places bloodshed alongside worship to expose how violence can enter the very acts and spaces marked as sacred.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.THE THREAD
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.Luke uses ἔμιξεν (emixen, “mingled”) from μίγνυμι (mígnymi, “to mix or mingle”); Revelation uses the same verb family in μεμιγμένα (memigmena, “mingled”) for hail and fire joined with blood. The shared root makes the violence in Luke’s image harder to separate from what surrounds it.
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