What Does Luke 13:7 Mean in the King James?
Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
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 tree is judged not only for producing nothing, but for rendering the ground itself idle.
THE MEANING
The verse gives fruitlessness a consequence: the tree occupies ground and makes that ground unproductive. Its presence is judged by what it yields and by what it does to the soil. “Cut it down” states the consequence plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a fruitless presence is harmless simply because it remains standing: the tree is said to make its ground idle.
THE ROOT
καταργεῖ
katargei
GROWS FROM
ἀργ- (arg-, in the family of ἀργός)
Idle, inactive; the verb means to render something idle or ineffective.
The verb καταργεῖ (katargei, “renders idle”) gives “cumbereth” the sharper sense of making the ground unproductive. The same verse calls the dresser ἀμπελουργός (ampelourgos, “vine-worker”), a word containing ἔργον (ergon, “work”): the worker tends the vine while the tree leaves the ground idle.
ALSO GROWS
argos: Idle, inactive.
ἀργός
This related word carries the state imposed on the ground: it is left inactive or unproductive.
argeō: To be idle or inactive.
ἀργέω
This verb belongs to the same word family and shows the underlying sense behind rendering something idle.
καρπόν
karpon
GROWS FROM
καρπ-
karp-
Fruit, produce, yield.
The same word family names both bearing fruit and being fruitless. The verse’s concern is the tree’s yield, not whether it appears busy or alive.
ALSO GROWS
karpophoreō: To bear fruit, produce.
καρποφορέω
This compound makes explicit the action implicit in καρπός (karpos, “fruit”).
akarpos: Unfruitful, bearing no fruit.
ἄκαρπος
This word names the absence of the very yield the speaker seeks.
ἀμπελουργόν
ampelourgon
GROWS FROM
ἄμπελος + ἔργον (ampelos + ergon)
Vine + work; a worker who tends a vineyard.
The “dresser” is ἀμπελουργός (ampelourgos, “vine-worker”), formed from ἄμπελος (ampelos, “vine”) and ἔργον (ergon, “work”). The word places labor and tending beside the tree’s failure to yield and its effect on the soil.
ALSO GROWS
ampelos: Vine.
ἄμπελος
It names what the worker tends in the vineyard.
ergon: Work, deed.
ἔργον
This is the work element in ἀμπελουργός (ampelourgos, “vine-worker”), sharpening the contrast with ground rendered idle.
THE PATTERN
When planted life yields nothing or harm, its use of the ground itself comes under judgment.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.THE THREAD
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:Luke’s καταργεῖ (katargei, “renders idle”) and 2 Timothy’s “abolished” translate the same Greek verb, καταργέω (katargeō, “render ineffective”). Here it describes ground made unproductive; there it names death rendered powerless.
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