What Does Luke 20:31 Mean in the King James?
And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died.
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
Here, “left” names what remains after departure: the seven die with no children left behind to continue their line.
THE MEANING
This verse holds up the limit of biological continuation: the seven leave no children behind, and each dies. A life without descendants still stands inside the passage’s question about what lives before God; lineage does not answer it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that descendants are the only way a life remains: the seven leave no children, yet the passage goes on to say that all live to God.
THE ROOT
κατέλιπον
katelipon
GROWS FROM
λείπω
leipō
To leave or leave behind; also to be left lacking.
The verb is καταλείπω, “leave behind,” built from λείπω, which can also mean to be lacking. The verse describes each death alongside the absence of anyone left behind to continue the family line, making that absence part of its repeated pattern.
ALSO GROWS
kataleipō: To leave behind.
καταλείπω
This is the verb used in the verse: the children are what the seven do not leave after them.
leimma: A remnant; what remains.
λεῖμμα
This related word carries the sense of what is left over, illuminating the verse’s focus on whether anything remains after each death.
enkataleipō: To abandon or forsake.
ἐγκαταλείπω
This compound shares the same root of leaving, showing how the language can describe what is left behind or left without.
THE PATTERN
Biological descent does not set the boundary of belonging or life before God.
Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:THE THREAD
And he left all, rose up, and followed him.Luke uses the same Greek verb, καταλείπω, for what is left behind: here, no children; there, all Levi’s possessions. The shared root makes “left” concrete as what remains after someone departs.
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