What Does Luke 19:23 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
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 “usury” is τόκος (tókos), meaning interest or offspring: the verse pictures entrusted money as something expected to bring forth more.
THE MEANING
The expectation reaches even a simple deposit: what is entrusted is meant to enter a process that can yield a return. The master’s coming makes that return visible and answerable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that keeping what is entrusted untouched is automatically faithful; even placing it with a bank would have produced a return.
THE ROOT
τόκος
tókos
GROWS FROM
τικτ- (τίκτω, tíktō)
To bring forth or bear; τόκος names offspring and, by extension, interest.
English “usury” can sound like a fee, but τόκος carries the image of something born from what was entrusted. The word makes the return feel like offspring: the original value yields more.
ALSO GROWS
tíktō: To bring forth or bear.
τίκτω
It is the verb behind the root image: the money is expected to bring forth a return.
téknon: Child or offspring.
τέκνον
This related word preserves the birth-and-issue image carried by τόκος, making “interest” more than a bare financial term.
THE PATTERN
What is entrusted is expected to enter a process that yields a return.
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.THE THREAD
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.Matthew uses the same Greek word, τόκος (tókos), translated “usury” in both verses. Its sense of offspring reveals the shared image: entrusted value is expected to bring forth a return.
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