What Does Luke 15:30 Mean in the King James?
But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
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 sets the son’s “devouring” beside the father’s slaughtering: the brother hears the welcome feast as more consumption from a household already depleted.
THE MEANING
You hear the returning person described through what he has spent: the speaker says “this thy son,” not “my brother,” and calls the loss his father’s livelihood. The complaint turns the shared feast into another charge against the son, as if welcoming him spends the household’s resources again. Resentment becomes a ledger of who costs what.
THE ROOT
καταφαγών
kataphagōn
GROWS FROM
φαγ-
phag-
eat, consume
“devoured” in this verse is kataphagōn. The participle pictures the estate as eaten up, not merely lost. The same word family can name an eater, turning the brother’s description of what his sibling did into a label for who he is.
ALSO GROWS
phagein: to eat
φαγεῖν
This form shares the eating root and makes the charge sound like consumption from within the household.
phagos: an eater; rendered “gluttonous” in Luke 7:34
φάγος
The same root can describe a person by eating, echoing how the brother defines his sibling through what he consumed.
βίον
bion
GROWS FROM
βιο-
bio-
life, livelihood, the means by which one lives
Here βίος (bios, “life or livelihood”) means the means of life, so “thy living” points to the father’s resources, not just abstract vitality. The brother frames the return as a financial grievance, even as he distances himself from the returning man by calling him “this thy son.”
ALSO GROWS
bios: life, livelihood, or means of living; used of the widow’s “living” in Mark 12:44
βίος
This use makes clear that the brother accuses his sibling of consuming the father’s resources.
biōtikos: pertaining to daily life and its affairs; used of the “cares” of life in Luke 21:34
βιοτικός
The related word carries life into the practical concerns and resources the brother counts.
ἔθυσας
ethysas
GROWS FROM
θύω
thyō
slaughter, sacrifice
“killed” in this verse is ethysas. The verb can mean slaughter or sacrifice, so the father’s action is both a killing and the provision of a feast. By repeating that action in his accusation, the brother recasts a celebration as further expense on the son he blames.
ALSO GROWS
thysia: sacrifice, offering
θυσία
This related noun shows the sacrificial range carried by the verb translated “killed.”
thysiastērion: altar, a place of sacrifice
θυσιαστήριον
The same word family names the altar, linking the verb with the language of offering as well as slaughter.
THE PATTERN
When value is measured by expense, generosity toward another can look like waste or injustice.
Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?THE THREAD
And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:Luke 15:23 uses the same Greek verb, θύω (thyō, “to slaughter or sacrifice”), when the father says, “kill it.” In the father’s mouth it opens a shared feast; here the brother turns that same act into evidence of unfair spending.
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