What Does Luke 14:3 Mean in the King James?

And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?

Luke 14:3 · 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.

THE KEY

The Greek word for “heal” also means to attend and serve, so the question tests whether the Sabbath can exclude care itself.

THE MEANING

The question keeps the person needing care visible where rules meet human need. Healing is placed within the meaning of Sabbath rest, and the rule itself must answer whether it serves life. The verse speaks to the moment when care and observance seem to conflict.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that honoring a sacred day can require withholding care from someone who needs healing.

THE ROOT

θεραπεῦσαι

therapeusai

GROWS FROM

θεραπευ-

therapeu-: attend or serve; care for and treat.

English “heal” can sound like an outcome, but ⁨θεραπεύω⁩ also means to attend and serve; the word holds caring action inside healing. The question asks whether this attentive care belongs on the Sabbath.

ALSO GROWS

therapeuō: to attend, serve, care for, or heal

θεραπεύω

This verb shows that healing includes the act of caring for someone.

therapeia: care, service, or healing

θεραπεία

This related word keeps healing and attentive service in the same family.

therapeutēs: attendant or healer

θεραπευτής

The word names the one who gives care, making healing an act of service as well as a result.

σαββάτῳ

sabbatō

GROWS FROM

σαββατ-

sabbat-: Sabbath; the weekly day of rest.

The Sabbath is not an abstract rule in this question; it is the setting in which care is weighed. Its rest and the act of healing meet in the same moment.

ALSO GROWS

sabbatizō: to keep or observe the Sabbath

σαββατίζω

This verb names the practice whose purpose is at stake in the question.

sabbatismos: Sabbath rest or keeping of the Sabbath

σαββατισμός

This related form holds rest within the Sabbath word family, alongside the question of healing.

THE PATTERN

Sabbath rest is for the relief and restoration of living beings.

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.

Exodus 23:12 · KJVRest reaches beyond the observer to include animals, workers, and the stranger, so the day is measured by the relief it allows.

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Mark 2:27 · KJVThe Sabbath is described as serving humanity’s good, placing its purpose on the side of human flourishing.

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?

Luke 13:16 · KJVRelease from a binding condition is presented as fitting the Sabbath itself.

THE THREAD

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Mark 2:27 · KJV

The Greek term translated “sabbath” is the same lexeme, ⁨σάββατον⁩ (sabbaton), in Mark’s declaration that Sabbath is made for humanity. That shared word opens the question toward purpose: healing belongs within a day ordered toward human good.

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