What Does Luke 21:16 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
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 word translated “betrayed” means “handed over”: danger can arrive through the very bonds we assume will protect us.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks plainly of a threat that reaches into family and friendship: people closest to you can hand you over, and some are killed. Closeness does not guarantee protection from betrayal or violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that family ties and affection make betrayal impossible.
THE ROOT
παραδοθήσεσθε
paradothēsesthe
GROWS FROM
παραδίδωμι
paradidōmi
To give; in this compound, to hand over or deliver, and in this context, to betray.
English “betrayed” can sound like a moral category, but παραδίδωμι names the concrete act of handing someone over. The same word family names what is handed down as tradition, so the verse’s pain is carried by a verb of transfer: a person is passed from a close relation into danger.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: To give someone into another’s custody; in this passage, the context makes the handover betrayal.
παραδίδωμι
It shows that betrayal here is an act of transfer, not only a feeling or accusation.
paradosis: A teaching or practice that has been handed down; this noun belongs to the same word family.
παράδοσις
The shared family reveals the motion of passing something, or someone, from one holder to another.
φίλων
philōn
GROWS FROM
φίλος (philos), φίλ- (phil-)
Love or affection; φίλος names one joined by affection, a friend.
“friends” in this verse is philōn. The word for friend carries the language of affection, not merely the label of an acquaintance. That makes the betrayal’s wound sharper: the verse places a loving bond beside the act of handing someone over.
ALSO GROWS
phileō: To love or cherish; it belongs to the same affection word family as φίλος, friend.
φιλέω
The friend’s closeness is rooted in affection, which makes the threat within friendship especially stark.
philadelphia: Brotherly love, the affection expressed between brothers and sisters.
φιλαδελφία
The same family of affection words can name bonds of love even as this verse names the possibility of rupture within close bonds.
THE PATTERN
When loyalty fractures, the threat can rise through the closest bonds rather than only from outside them.
For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.THE THREAD
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?The verb translated “betrayed” here is the same Greek verb translated “delivered him up” in Romans 8:32. In Luke, close relations hand someone into danger; in Romans, the Son is handed over for all, and the shared verb holds both painful betrayal and costly giving.
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