What Does Luke 20:14 Mean in the King James?

But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.

Luke 20:14 · 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

THE KEY

The tenants recognize the rightful heir, then choose murder as a way to seize his allotted share.

THE MEANING

This verse names a live human calculation: the heir is recognized, yet his life is treated as an obstacle to another’s possession. The tenants deliberately choose murder so the inheritance might become theirs. The violence stays in view; desire does not make it abstract.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It exposes the lie that removing the rightful heir can make his inheritance rightfully yours.

THE ROOT

κληρονόμος

klēronomos

GROWS FROM

⁨κλῆρος⁩ (klēros, allotted share) + ⁨νέμω⁩ (nemō, allot or distribute)

An allotted share and the act of allotting it; together, the compound names one who receives an inheritance.

The verse uses words for “heir” and “inheritance” built around the same idea of an allotted share. The tenants know whose share it is, yet imagine they can make it theirs by killing the person who carries the claim.

ALSO GROWS

klēros: lot, allotted share

κλῆρος

The inheritance is a share with an identifiable claimant, not an unclaimed prize.

klēronomia: inheritance

κληρονομία

The word for what the tenants want belongs to the same word family as the heir they plan to kill.

klēronomeō: to inherit

κληρονομέω

The related verb describes receiving an allotted share, sharpening the contrast between receiving and seizing it through murder.

THE PATTERN

When people treat another’s rightful share as their prize, the person who carries the claim becomes an obstacle to remove.

Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Genesis 37:20 · KJVJoseph’s brothers plot to kill the one whose dreams place him in a position they resent.

And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money: for Naboth is not alive, but dead.

1 Kings 21:15 · KJVNaboth’s death is turned into the opening for Ahab to take the vineyard he had refused to sell.

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

James 4:2 · KJVJames names the same progression from desire to killing in the pursuit of possession.

THE THREAD

Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Galatians 4:7 · KJV

Galatians uses the same Greek word, ⁨κληρονόμος⁩ (klēronomos, heir). Luke’s tenants treat the heir as an obstacle to erase so they can seize his share; Galatians frames inheritance through sonship, revealing the difference between taking an inheritance and receiving one as kin.

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