What Does Luke 16:14 Mean in the King James?
And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
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
A person can hear the truth clearly while the love of silver turns the response into a sneer.
THE MEANING
You can hear a truth and still meet it with contempt when it threatens what you love. The verse names that attachment as love of silver and lets the sneer expose the conflict. Hearing reaches the ear; it does not by itself mean the heart receives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that hearing a truth means letting it reach you; someone can hear clearly and still use ridicule to guard an attachment.
THE ROOT
φιλάργυροι
philargyroi
GROWS FROM
φιλ- + ἀργυρ- (a Greek compound)
Love of silver; fondness for money.
English “covetous” can sound like a general flaw, but this Greek compound makes the object visible: silver is loved. It links desire to allegiance, so the derision follows as a response from people already attached to wealth.
ALSO GROWS
philos: Loving; friend or beloved.
φίλος
This supplies the affection in “covetous”: silver is not merely present but loved.
argyros: Silver.
ἄργυρος
This names the object beneath the broader English word “covetous.”
ἐξεμυκτήριζον
exemyktērizon
GROWS FROM
μυκτηρ-
Nose; the basis of the gesture of turning up one’s nose.
“Derided” can sound like speech alone, but the Greek word carries the image of a nose turned up in contempt. The sneer makes visible on the face the resistance stirred by what they hear.
ALSO GROWS
myktēr: Nose.
μυκτήρ
The bodily source of the image shows contempt as a visible gesture.
myktērizō: To turn up the nose at; to sneer or mock.
μυκτηρίζω
This related verb shares the root used for “mocked” in Galatians 6:7.
THE PATTERN
When wealth becomes the heart’s beloved, it cannot satisfy and begins to rival allegiance to God.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.THE THREAD
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.Luke’s “derided” and Galatians’ “mocked” share the μυκτηρ- word family, whose image is turning up the nose. In Luke the sneer answers what they hear; Galatians says that contempt does not erase what is sown.
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