What Does Luke 13:15 Mean in the King James?
The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
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 same Greek verb names both untying the animal and unbinding the woman, so the permitted act of care exposes the limit of the rule.
THE MEANING
The verse puts an ordinary act of care in view: an animal is untied and led to water even on the Sabbath. That same release belongs to the woman’s healing in the surrounding scene. Care for an animal is already allowed; the question is whether it can include a bound human being.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that honoring sacred rest requires refusing needed relief: even this rule makes room to release an animal so it can drink.
THE ROOT
λύει
lyei
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
to loosen, untie, release
“loose” in this verse is lyei. The Greek verb here is the same verb used in the next verse for the woman being loosed from her bond. Jesus’ comparison turns on that shared action: the release already allowed for an animal also names the healing at issue.
ALSO GROWS
lythēnai: To be released; the form used of the woman in Luke 13:16.
λύθηναι
It makes the link explicit: the woman’s release and the animal’s untying are expressed through the same root.
apolelysai: The form used when Jesus tells the woman she is loosed from her infirmity in Luke 13:12.
ἀπολέλυσαι
This compound of the same root names her healing as release, placing the animal’s ordinary untying beside the restoration at the heart of the scene.
THE PATTERN
Care takes the concrete form of releasing what is bound so living beings can receive needed relief.
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.THE THREAD
And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?The “loosed” here and the “loosed” in the next verse share λύω (luō, to loosen or release): λύει (lyei, loosens) here and λυθῆναι (lythēnai, to be loosed) there. The same action applies to the animal and the woman, making the contrast in who receives release impossible to miss.
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