What Does Luke 16:20 Mean in the King James?
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
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 man whose name means “God helps” has been placed at a household’s threshold, where that name stands beside suffering in plain sight.
THE MEANING
An injured person lies at the edge of another household, visible and dependent. Lazarus carries the name-sense “God helps,” while the suffering remains exposed. Need and the language of help stand together in the same frame.
THE ROOT
ἐβέβλητο
ebeblēto
GROWS FROM
βαλ
bal
throw, cast, put or place
The word translated “laid” is a passive form from the βάλλω family of casting and placing. It gives the man’s location a force beyond a neutral backdrop, while leaving unnamed who placed him there.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: throw, cast, put or place
βάλλω
This is the verb behind the verse’s passive form and makes placement part of the image.
bolē: a throwing, cast or projectile
βολή
Its βολ- form shares the β–λ consonantal family and preserves the sense of casting.
blēma: something thrown, a missile
βλῆμα
This related form names what is cast, keeping the same root family in view.
אֶלְעָזָר
Elʿazar Greek
GROWS FROM
עזר
ʿ-z-r
help, support, aid
Lazarus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Elʿazar, “God helps,” built with the root עזר for help. That help-language stands beside an injured body still at the threshold, holding need and the name’s meaning together without explaining the gap.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzar: help, aid, support
עָזַר
This verb supplies the root meaning carried in the name Elʿazar.
ʿēzer: help, aid
עֵזֶר
This noun shows the same root naming the support that the name invokes.
πυλῶνα
pylōna
GROWS FROM
πυλ
pyl
gate, entrance or gateway
“gate” in this verse is pylōna. The word πυλών names a gateway or entrance, placing the wounded man at the boundary between a household’s inside and outside. The threshold makes the social distance concrete without telling us how anyone responds.
ALSO GROWS
pylē: gate, entrance
πύλη
This closely related form names the opening that separates and connects the spaces.
pylōros: gatekeeper
πυλωρός
This word from the πυλ- family names a person associated with the gateway, sharpening the sense of a threshold that can be watched or crossed.
THE PATTERN
A boundary reveals its character by where it places the person in need and whether it opens toward them.
If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:THE THREAD
And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.Luke’s ἐβέβλητο and Matthew’s βέβληται both come from βάλλω, “cast, place.” Both describe a vulnerable body through where it lies; in Matthew, someone speaks for the immobilized servant, while Luke leaves Lazarus at the gate.
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