What Does Luke 22:38 Mean in the King James?
And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
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 reply names a measure of sufficiency while leaving open exactly what the two swords are enough for.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where a response is being measured: two swords are named, and the answer is, “It is enough.” The Greek ἱκανόν (hikanon, “sufficient” or “fit”) frames the answer as a measure of adequacy, but the line does not say precisely what that measure covers. It holds a boundary and an open question together.
THE ROOT
ἱκανόν
hikanon
GROWS FROM
ἱκαν-
hikan-
fit, capable, sufficient
This word family makes “enough” a question of fitness or capacity, not sheer amount. Here, the root sharpens the answer while leaving its object unstated: the verse declares sufficiency without telling you precisely what is sufficient.
ALSO GROWS
hikanos: sufficient, fit, capable
ἱκανός
The adjective reveals the root’s sense of being adequate or fit for a purpose.
hikanotēs: sufficiency, competence
ἱκανότης
This noun shows that the same root can name the capacity behind what is sufficient.
hikanoō: make sufficient, qualify
ἱκανόω
This verb connects sufficiency with being made fit or capable.
THE PATTERN
Enough marks a boundary at which what is present is called sufficient.
And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;THE THREAD
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;Luke’s ἱκανόν (hikanon, “sufficient” or “fit”) belongs to the same ἱκαν- (hikan-, “sufficient or fit”) word family rendered “sufficient” and “sufficiency” here. The echo opens “enough” as a measure of capacity, while Luke leaves exactly what the swords suffice for unstated.
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