What Does Luke 20:10 Mean in the King James?

And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty.
Luke 20:10 · KJV
The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

Luke places two sendings against each other: the owner sends the servant toward the harvest, and the tenants send him back empty, making their rejection of the owner visible.

You meet the claim on what has been entrusted to your care through the servant who comes to receive its yield. The tenants beat him and send him away empty: the vineyard bears fruit, while its keepers refuse both the share and the sender’s authority.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that holding what has been entrusted makes it yours without remainder: possession cannot erase the claim that comes for its yield.

ἀπέστειλεν

apesteilen

GROWS FROM

στέλλω

stellō

To send or dispatch; the compounds carry the sense of sending out and sending away.

“sent / sent him away” in this verse is apesteilen. The owner dispatches the servant, and the tenants send him away: both actions belong to the same Greek sending family. Their second sending reverses the first, turning a mission to receive fruit into an expulsion that returns the servant empty.

ALSO GROWS

apostellō: Send out, dispatch.

ἀποστέλλω

This is the word behind the owner’s sending of the servant to receive a share of the vineyard’s fruit.

exapostellō: Send away, dismiss.

ἐξαποστέλλω

This is the word behind the tenants’ act: they expel the servant instead of answering the claim he carries.

καρποῦ

karpou

GROWS FROM

⁨καρπ-⁩ (karp-), ⁨καρπός⁩ (karpos)

Fruit, produce, yield.

The request is for a share “of the fruit,” not for the vineyard itself: karpos names what the land yields. Its word family extends the noun into bearing fruit, revealing a living yield that can be received and shared.

ALSO GROWS

karpophoreō: Bear fruit, yield.

καρποφορέω

The same root moves from the harvest named here to the act of producing it.

karpophoria: Fruit-bearing, fruitfulness.

καρποφορία

This branch frames fruit as an ongoing yield rather than merely something possessed.

A messenger carries the sender’s claim, and the way the messenger is received reveals how the sender is received.

But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
2 Chronicles 36:16 · KJVThe messengers are mocked and misused, exposing the refusal of the one who sends them.
He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
Luke 10:16 · KJVThe response to the messenger is directly tied to the response to the sender.
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Matthew 10:40 · KJVReceiving the sent person is receiving the authority behind that person’s arrival.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
John 15:16 · KJV

The “fruit” in both verses is the same Greek word, karpos: a yield that can be withheld, borne, and left to remain. Luke shows the keepers withholding it; John describes fruit that continues.

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Luke 20:10 KJV Meaning