What Does Luke 13:29 Mean in the King James?

And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

Luke 13:29 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

God’s reign is pictured as a table wide enough for arrivals from every direction, where welcome means having a place to recline.

THE MEANING

God’s governance gathers people from every direction and seats them at its table. Belonging is not a distant welcome from the edge; it is a place at the feast.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a place at God’s table belongs only to people from one place, people, or path.

THE ROOT

ἀνακλιθήσονται

anaklithēsontai

GROWS FROM

κλίνω

klinō

To bend or incline; with ⁨ἀνακλίνω⁩, to lean back or recline, especially at a meal.

The KJV’s “sit down” carries the posture of reclining at a feast. People arriving from every direction are pictured not merely entering a realm, but taking a place at its shared table.

ALSO GROWS

anaklinō: To recline, or to make someone recline at a meal.

ἀνακλίνω

This is the verb behind “sit down” here and makes the welcome feel like a place at the feast.

klinē: A couch or bed.

κλίνη

The related word points to the body’s resting posture, reinforcing that the scene is one of reclining rather than formal standing.

βασιλείᾳ

basileia

GROWS FROM

βασιλευ-

basileu-

Kingship or royal rule: the authority of a king and the sphere under that rule.

“kingdom” in this verse is basileia. The word carries both rule and realm: those reclining do so within God’s active governance. Here that governance is pictured as a feast with arrivals from every direction.

ALSO GROWS

basileus: King.

βασιλεύς

The related noun keeps the word connected to the one whose rule gathers and welcomes.

basileuō: To reign or rule as king.

βασιλεύω

This verbal branch makes the kingdom’s active governance visible in the scene.

THE PATTERN

God’s gathering brings people from far places into shared welcome and feast.

And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

Psalm 107:3 · KJVThe same four directions describe a gathering that reaches across the whole horizon.

And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

Isaiah 25:6 · KJVThe welcome of all peoples takes the form of a feast, as it does in Luke’s image of reclining.

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Revelation 7:9 · KJVThe multitude drawn from every people makes the scope of the gathering visible.

THE THREAD

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

Luke 12:37 · KJV

“Make them to sit down” uses the same Greek verb of reclining as Luke 13:29. Here the lord serves those at the table, opening the image of welcome into a striking scene of shared meal and reversed status.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us