What Does Luke 20:5 Mean in the King James?
And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?
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
When consequences set the terms of a truth question, reasoning becomes a way to avoid trust.
THE MEANING
Your reasoning can become a ledger of consequences: if this answer is true, what will it demand of me? When the cost of trusting a witness becomes the first measure, calculation can keep you from the truth it claims to examine.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that careful risk calculation is the same as discernment: consequences may explain why an answer is resisted without making the answer false.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστεύσατε
episteusate
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, reliance; placing your weight on someone as firm and trustworthy.
The Greek word for “believed” carries the sense of trust and reliance, not only mental agreement. The question is whether they will entrust themselves to John’s witness, and they weigh that trust against what it might cost.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, reliance; leaning your full weight on someone.
πίστις
It shows that the belief at stake involves relying on John’s witness.
pistos: Firm, steady, trustworthy.
πιστός
The question presses whether John is trustworthy, while their calculation centers on the consequences of treating him that way.
THE PATTERN
Fear of consequences can turn discernment into a calculation about what is safest to say.
The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.THE THREAD
And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.The same Greek verb for belief appears here as in Luke 20:5. In Luke, the question of trust is weighed against its cost; here, the speaker says plainly, “I believe.”
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