What Does Luke 17:6 Mean in the King James?
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
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 seed-sized trust is not inert belief: it speaks, and the tree’s Greek response is literally a hearing-under.
THE MEANING
Trust takes voice here: you speak to what seems rooted in place, and the verse pictures it listening and moving. The tree is uprooted and planted elsewhere, so the change includes both release from one place and a new placement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that what is deeply rooted cannot move unless your trust first becomes enormous.
THE ROOT
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πειθ
The root carries the sense of persuading or being persuaded; πίστις names trust and confidence.
The word rendered “faith” belongs to a family of persuasion and trust. Here trust is pictured in seed form, then given a voice that addresses what seems immovable.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, convince, or win trust.
πείθω
This verb shows the persuasive confidence within the trust named by πίστις.
pisteuō: Trust, believe, or entrust oneself.
πιστεύω
The related verb turns trust from a noun into an act, matching the verse’s movement from trust to speech.
ἐκριζώθητι
ekrizōthēti
GROWS FROM
ῥιζ
ῥιζ means root; ἐκριζώθητι means “be uprooted” or “be rooted out.”
“plucked up by the root” in this verse is ekrizōthēti. The Greek verb for being plucked up contains the word for root. The same root-family also describes taking root, so the verse carries the tree from one rooted place into another.
ALSO GROWS
rhiza: Root.
ῥίζα
This is the root-word inside the command to be uprooted, making the tree’s hidden anchor explicit.
rhizoō: Cause to take root; root or establish.
ῥιζόω
This related verb reveals the other side of the image: what is uprooted can also be established in new ground.
ὑπακούσει
hypakousei
GROWS FROM
ἀκου
ἀκου- means hear or listen; ὑπακούω is “hear under,” and by extension heed or obey.
“obey” in this verse is hypakousei. The tree’s obedience is expressed with a word built from hearing. The verse pictures the spoken command being heard and answered, joining trust within to movement outside.
ALSO GROWS
akouō: Hear or listen.
ἀκούω
This is the hearing-root inside the verb translated “obey,” showing the response begins as listening.
hypakoē: Heeding, obedience.
ὑπακοή
This related noun preserves the link between hearing and responding that shapes the tree’s answer.
THE PATTERN
Trust speaks to what seems fixed as movable, while life can take root in a new place.
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.THE THREAD
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,The same Greek root named in Luke as something to pull from the ground appears here as being rooted in love. One verse imagines a tree uprooted and replanted; the other pictures you established in love.
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