What Does Luke 20:29 Mean in the King James?
There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children.
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 gathers “without children” into one word, making the absence of a child the hinge on which the brothers’ story turns.
THE MEANING
Here, marriage begins and death follows without a child. That absence is the hinge: the question that follows turns on who carries a family line forward when the first household ends childless.
THE ROOT
ἄτεκνος
ateknos
GROWS FROM
τεκν-
tekn-
Child or offspring; the seed concept within ἄτεκνος (ateknos, without children).
English spreads the phrase across two words, while Greek compresses it into ἄτεκνος (ateknos, without children), formed from ἀ- (a-, without) and τέκνον (teknon, child). The word places the rupture precisely where a child would carry the family line forward.
ALSO GROWS
teknon: Child or offspring.
τέκνον
This is the seed word within ἄτεκνος (ateknos, without children), making the absence specific: there is no child.
teknogoneō: To bear children.
τεκνογονέω
This related word extends the same root toward the bringing forth of children, sharpening what is missing when the first brother dies without them.
THE PATTERN
When death leaves a family line without a child, kinship becomes a route through which the dead person’s name can continue.
If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.THE THREAD
Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.The same Greek word, ἄτεκνος (ateknos, without children), appears in both verses. The preceding line names the rule; this verse gives its first case, making the absence of a child the pressure that carries the question forward.
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