What Does Luke 19:47 Mean in the King James?
And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,
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 Greek word behind “destroy” belongs to the same word-family used for being “lost”: the leaders seek to make the teacher perish.
THE MEANING
You can see open, daily teaching and a deliberate plan to destroy its speaker occupying the same sacred space. The verse shows that religious authority does not by itself protect the life or truth being spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sacred titles guarantee that their bearers protect what is true or life-giving.
THE ROOT
ἀπολέσαι
apolesai
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
Apollymi (ἀπόλλυμι, apollymi) means to destroy or cause to perish; in other forms it also means to lose or be lost.
Here, “destroy” is the leaders’ intended outcome: to make him perish. The same Greek word-family can describe someone who is lost, letting the verse’s violence echo the language of loss.
ALSO GROWS
apollymi: To perish, be destroyed, or be lost.
ἀπόλλυμι
This is the word-family behind “sought to destroy”; elsewhere it describes someone who is lost.
apōleia: Loss, ruin, or destruction.
ἀπώλεια
This related noun carries the same movement toward loss that the leaders intend for the teacher.
THE PATTERN
Open teaching can be met not only with dispute but with an organized attempt to remove its speaker.
Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,THE THREAD
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.Luke uses the same Greek word-family for the son who is “lost,” while this verse uses it for what the leaders seek to do to Jesus. The echo draws “destroy” and “lost” back toward one root: a life brought to ruin or lost.
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