What Does Luke 15:9 Mean in the King James?
And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
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 repeats “together” in her gathering and her invitation to rejoice, making the recovery communal from the first call.
THE MEANING
The found coin’s recovery draws friends and neighbors into the joy. Here, gladness grows in company rather than staying private.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What is lost cannot be recovered.
THE ROOT
συγχάρητέ μοι
syncharēte moi
GROWS FROM
χαίρω
chairō
To rejoice, to be glad.
The invitation uses συγχάρητέ, “rejoice with me,” while “she calleth … together” uses συγκαλεῖ. Both words carry syn, “with” or “together,” joining the gathering and the joy into one shared movement.
ALSO GROWS
chara: Joy, gladness.
χαρά
The noun names the gladness at the center of the invitation.
synchairō: To rejoice with another, share in joy.
συγχαίρω
The added syn (“with”) makes rejoicing something others can enter.
ἀπώλεσα
apōlesa
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
To perish, lose the way, or bring to ruin.
The verb carries the weight of perishing or ruin alongside being lost. Here that severe word for loss stands beside finding: what was missing is recoverable.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Loss, ruin, destruction.
ἀπώλεια
This noun shows the heavier edge the word family can carry beneath the simple absence of the coin.
apolōlōs: Lost, perished.
ἀπολωλώς
The same word family describes the lost son in Luke 15:24, where the text immediately adds that he is found.
THE PATTERN
What is lost is sought, and its recovery becomes cause for rejoicing.
I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.THE THREAD
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.“Lost” here and in this verse comes from the same Greek word family, ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), carrying the sense of loss or perishing. Luke pairs it with “is found,” then lets the household’s shared joy follow.
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