What Does Luke 13:28 Mean in the King James?
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.
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 shock is seeing the patriarchs and prophets inside God’s governance while you recognize yourself outside it.
THE MEANING
You see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets within God’s governance, while you yourself are thrust outside. The verse gives that recognition its bodily sound, weeping and gnashing teeth, and leaves the exclusion severe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that familiarity with sacred names, prophets, or lineage guarantees belonging.
THE ROOT
ἐκβαλλομένους
ekballomenous
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
to throw or cast
“thrust out” in this verse is ekballomenous. The Greek keeps the force of being thrown; ἐκ (ek, out) makes the direction explicit. The same casting motion appears in words for throwing out and throwing in, with the prefix setting its direction.
ALSO GROWS
ekballō: cast or throw out
ἐκβάλλω
This is the verb behind the verse’s forceful image of expulsion.
emballō: throw or put in
ἐμβάλλω
The same casting motion points inward when its prefix changes.
βασιλείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ
basileia tou theou
GROWS FROM
βασιλ-
basil-
kingship, rule
“kingdom of God” in this verse is basileia tou theou. βασιλεία (basileia, rule or kingship) carries the sense of governance, so the verse’s inside and outside describe relation to God’s rule, not only a place. That makes the exclusion a severance from the governance the patriarchs and prophets inhabit.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: king
βασιλεύς
The ruler is the person at the center of the word’s field of meaning.
basileuō: reign
βασιλεύω
This branch names the act of ruling that basileia holds as governance.
יִצְחָק
Yitzchak
GROWS FROM
צחק
tzachaq
to laugh
Isaac’s name grows from צחק (tzachaq, to laugh), placing laughter within this stark scene of grief. The other names carry their own nature: Abraham (אַבְרָהָם, Avraham, father of a multitude) and Jacob (יַעֲקֹב, Ya’aqov, heel-holder or supplanter) bring abundance and the struggle for place into the same list.
ALSO GROWS
tzachaq: laugh
צָחַק
The verb is the seed carried in Isaac’s name.
tzechoq: laughter
צְחוֹק
This noun makes the sound within Isaac’s name explicit beside the verse’s weeping.
THE PATTERN
Seeing those within a realm while finding yourself outside it turns separation into grief.
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.THE THREAD
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.Matthew uses ἐκβάλλω (ekballō, cast out), the same verb behind Luke’s “thrust out.” Its pairing with weeping and gnashing makes the expulsion here part of a recurring image of recognizing the kingdom from outside.
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