What Does Luke 14:12 Mean in the King James?
Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
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
An invitation can carry its own invoice: when the guest list is chosen by who can invite you back, the meal already contains its return.
THE MEANING
Your table can open to people whose table is likely to open back to you. The verse names that loop as recompense, so hospitality can function as an exchange while still looking generous. Its measure is visible now in whether the guest matters apart from what can come back.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a generous-looking invitation is automatically a gift: when the guest is chosen for the ability to repay, the invitation already carries a price.
THE ROOT
ἀνταπόδομα
antapódoma
GROWS FROM
δο- (do-, give; present stem διδο- from δίδωμι, didōmi)
Give, or hand something over.
The noun translated “recompence” comes from the verb for giving back in return. The meal sits inside a giving-and-returning circuit: the invitation starts an exchange whose answer is already anticipated.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give or hand over.
δίδωμι
This is the underlying act of giving that the verse turns into a cycle.
apodídōmi: To give back, render, or repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
The added sense of return makes clear how a meal can become an account to be settled.
antapodídōmi: To repay or return something in kind.
ἀνταποδίδωμι
This verb family names the anticipated invitation back that makes the original invitation reciprocal.
THE PATTERN
A gift opens beyond its recipient when its return is not collected from that person.
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.THE THREAD
And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.The same word family names the repayment this verse warns about and the recompense named in the next verse. The return shifts away from the guest across the table, opening the meal beyond a settled exchange.
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