What Does Luke 20:9 Mean in the King James?
Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.
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 vineyard is planted before it is leased, so those who tend it receive responsibility without becoming its source.
THE MEANING
The vineyard you tend is something you receive before it is something you produce. Its owner’s distance can last a long time, but it does not erase the entrusted work or the one who planted it. The interval makes your response to what is placed in your hands visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Time without the owner’s presence does not turn what is leased into what is owned.
THE ROOT
ἐξέδετο
exedeto
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant.
The KJV’s “let it forth” is lease language: ἐξέδετο (exedeto) comes from ἐκδίδωμι (ekdidōmi), formed from ἐκ (ek, out) and δίδωμι (didōmi, give). The workers receive use of the vineyard while its planter remains its owner; the long absence is entrusted time, not a transfer of origin.
ALSO GROWS
ekdidōmi: To lease out or let for rent.
ἐκδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “let it forth,” naming the workers’ use of the vineyard as granted.
paradidōmi: To hand over or deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This related compound makes the handover of responsibility visible without erasing the planter’s claim.
dosis: A giving or gift.
δόσις
This noun from the same word family keeps the act of leasing connected to something given.
γεωργοῖς
geōrgois
GROWS FROM
ἔργον / ἐργ- (ergon / erg-)
Work, labor, or deed; γεωργός combines γῆ (gē, earth) with ἔργον (ergon, work).
The Greek word for “husbandmen” names them as earth-workers. Their role is defined by tending the vineyard, while the preceding planting belongs to someone else.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: Work or deed.
ἔργον
It is the work element in γεωργός, exposing the labor inside the translated title.
ergazomai: To work or labor.
ἐργάζομαι
This related verb carries the same work-root, emphasizing that the tenants are defined by their labor.
geōrgos: Farmer or earth-worker.
γεωργός
This is the singular form of the verse’s word, making the workers’ relation to the land explicit.
ἐφύτευσεν
ephyteusen
GROWS FROM
φυτεύω / φυτ- (phyteuō / phyt-)
To plant or establish growing life.
“planted” in this verse is ephyteusen. The planting happens before the tenant arrangement: living growth is already established when the workers arrive. English can make planting and tending feel like parts of one task, while the Greek makes the prior act of establishment clear.
ALSO GROWS
phyton: A plant.
φυτόν
This noun from the same word family names the living growth that the planter establishes.
phyteia: A planting or plantation.
φυτεία
This branch carries the idea of an established planting, the work that precedes the tenants’ tending.
THE PATTERN
Cultivation can be entrusted to workers while the source of the planting and its claim remain with its maker.
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.THE THREAD
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.Luke’s ἀμπελών (ampelōn, vineyard) and the Greek text of Isaiah’s ἄμπελος (ampelos, vine) share the ἀμπελ- vine word. Isaiah names the planting as the LORD’s people and the fruit sought as justice and righteousness, opening the tenant scene as a question about what a community produces under entrusted care.
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