What Does Luke 18:13 Mean in the King James?
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
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 word translated “merciful” belongs to the same Greek word family as “propitiation” and “mercy seat,” so the plea reaches toward covering what the confession exposes.
THE MEANING
You can bring what is missing into the open without pretending it is already repaired. This prayer places that truth before God as a request for mercy, whose Greek wording also carries the sense of atoning cover. The lowered gaze and struck chest make the plea bodily, not abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that failure puts mercy out of reach dissolves here: the speaker asks for mercy precisely as he names himself a sinner.
THE ROOT
ἱλάσθητι
hilasthēti
GROWS FROM
ἱλάσκομαι
hilaskomai
To show mercy or be propitious; in this plea, the word carries the sense of making atonement.
“Be merciful” can sound like a request for kind feeling alone, but this Greek word family also names atoning provision and the place of atonement. The plea asks God to meet what is exposed with mercy that covers.
ALSO GROWS
hilasmos: Atoning means or propitiation.
ἱλασμός
This is the noun used in 1 John 2:2, linking the tax collector’s plea for mercy to language for atoning provision.
hilastērion: Mercy seat; place of atonement.
ἱλαστήριον
This branch gives the word family a place of meeting: mercy and the exposed need for covering come together.
ἁμαρτωλῷ
hamartōlō
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss or err.
The Greek word translated “sinner” remains connected to the idea of missing. He names that condition without softening it, while the preceding plea places it within reach of mercy.
ALSO GROWS
hamartia: Missing; a failure or error.
ἁμαρτία
This familiar branch keeps the image of a miss within the word translated “sin.”
hamartēma: A miss or error.
ἁμάρτημα
This branch describes a particular failing, showing how the root can name what has gone wrong without making it unreachable.
THE PATTERN
When human need is named without self-defense, the text directs attention toward God’s provision of mercy and covering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.THE THREAD
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.The Greek noun ἱλασμός (hilasmos), meaning atoning provision, belongs to the same word family as ἱλάσθητι (hilasthēti), translated “be merciful.” The tax collector’s plea is therefore joined to the language of mercy that covers.
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