What Does Luke 22:40 Mean in the King James?
And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
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 verb makes the danger a threshold: the trial may be near without yet being a place you have entered.
THE MEANING
Prayer meets the threshold where pressure may become involvement. The testing is real, but being near it and entering it are not the same.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that temptation matters only once a wrong act is complete; the verse names entering the testing as an earlier threshold.
THE ROOT
εἰσελθεῖν
eiselthein
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι (erchomai), joined with εἰς (eis)
ἔρχομαι (erchomai) means to come or go; εἰς (eis) means into.
“enter” in this verse is eiselthein. The verb frames temptation as a crossing into something, not merely a feeling that appears. The verse distinguishes pressure that is near from a trial one enters.
ALSO GROWS
eiserchomai: Enter or go into.
εἰσέρχομαι
This is the dictionary form behind “enter,” keeping the sense of crossing into a testing.
exerchomai: Go out or come forth.
ἐξέρχομαι
The contrasting compound shows the same movement root can describe leaving as well as entering.
πειρασμόν
peirasmon
GROWS FROM
πειρα-
peira-
The shared stem centers on trying or testing; πειρασμός (peirasmos) can name a trial, testing, or temptation.
English “temptation” can sound like only an inner lure, while πειρασμός (peirasmos) also names a test or trial. The verse speaks of entering that testing, so the pressure is more than a passing urge.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: Test, try, or tempt.
πειράζω
This related verb shows the action of putting someone to a test or drawing them into temptation.
peirasmos: A trial, testing, or temptation.
πειρασμός
This noun names the testing itself, the place or process the verse says not to enter.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom meets a destructive path at its threshold and keeps the way out visible.
Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.THE THREAD
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.James uses the same Greek family, πειράζω (peirazō, “to test or tempt”), when he says a person “is tempted,” and describes the pull as being drawn away and enticed. Luke names the threshold as entering the testing; James shows how that testing can become compelling.
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