What Does Luke 18:9 Mean in the King James?
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
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 verse binds confidence in one’s own rightness to contempt for others as two expressions of the same posture.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the reader who relies on their own judgment of being right while looking down on others. It joins self-trust and contempt: one’s own standing becomes the measure by which other people are diminished. The parable meets that posture in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Confidence in one’s own rightness is not proof of alignment; here, that confidence travels with contempt for others.
THE ROOT
πεποιθότας
pepoithotas
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peithō
To persuade or convince; in the middle or passive, to be persuaded and trust.
“trusted in themselves” in this verse is pepoithotas. This form presents their confidence as a settled persuasion: they have come to rely on themselves. The verse places that inward certainty beside their contempt for others, without treating certainty as proof of alignment.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: To persuade or convince; to be persuaded.
πείθω
The word family makes self-confidence legible as persuasion that has taken hold.
pepoitha: To be confident or rely on.
πέποιθα
This related form shows the trust or reliance carried by the confidence in the verse.
ἐξουθενοῦντας
exouthenountas
GROWS FROM
οὐδέν
ouden
Nothing; the related verb family carries the sense of treating someone or something as nothing.
“despised” in this verse is exouthenountas. The verb gives contempt the force of reckoning other people as nothing. The verse’s two movements are joined: reliance on one’s own standing accompanies reducing the standing of others.
ALSO GROWS
ouden: Nothing.
οὐδέν
This is the “nothing” at the center of the related verb family.
exoudenoō: To regard as nothing or despise.
ἐξουδενόω
This related form makes explicit how contempt can treat another person as negligible.
δίκαιοι
dikaioi
GROWS FROM
δίκη
dikē
Right, justice, or what is due; the word family concerns being right or setting something right.
“righteous” in this verse is dikaioi. The word names rightness or justice, which can be heard alongside alignment. The verse’s tension is that these people rest their claim to rightness on their own judgment while dismissing others.
ALSO GROWS
dikaiosynē: Justice, righteousness, or alignment.
δικαιοσύνη
This related noun connects the claim to being right with the broader idea of alignment.
dikaioō: To justify or set right.
δικαιόω
This related verb shows the family’s concern with a standing being judged or set right.
THE PATTERN
Self-assessed rightness can conceal what a person’s treatment of others reveals.
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.THE THREAD
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.Romans uses ἐξουθενεῖς (exoutheneis, “you set at nought”), from the same word family as ἐξουθενοῦντας (exouthenountas, “despising” or “treating as nothing”) here. The shared root exposes contempt as making another person count for nothing, while the verse places both before the same judgment seat.
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