What Does Luke 23:2 Mean in the King James?
And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.
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 charge turns “the anointed one” into a rival king by framing the nation as a path he is accused of twisting.
THE MEANING
When accusation reaches you, its wording can make a disputed account feel like a proven description. Here, the claims of twisting the nation, forbidding tribute, and claiming kingship form one political portrait, but the verse identifies it as what the accusers are saying.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A charge that invokes public order is not proof that the accused has disturbed it; here these claims remain allegations.
THE ROOT
διαστρέφοντα
diastrephonta
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
Turn or twist.
“perverting” in this verse is diastrephonta. The Greek verb means to turn aside or distort, and its base means to turn. The charge pictures the nation as a path being twisted; the word’s family also holds turning back and turning away.
ALSO GROWS
epistrephō: Turn back, return.
ἐπιστρέφω
This branch shows that turning can also mean a return to a way, giving the base image more range than distortion alone.
apostrephō: Turn away, turn aside.
ἀποστρέφω
This branch echoes the accusation’s image of a people being turned from their course.
Χριστόν
christon
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
Anoint, apply oil.
Christ comes from the verb for anointing and means the anointed one. Set beside “King,” it shows how the accusation turns his claimed nature into a charge of political rule.
ALSO GROWS
christos: Anointed one.
χριστός
This is the title in the verse, naming the one who is anointed.
chrisma: Anointing.
χρῖσμα
This related noun keeps the title connected to the act of anointing.
βασιλέα
basilea
GROWS FROM
βασιλ-
basil-
Rule or reign as king.
“King” in this verse is basilea. The accusation does not leave the title as a name; it frames it as governance that could compete with Caesar’s. In Greek, kingship remains joined to both reigning and kingdom.
ALSO GROWS
basileuō: Reign, rule as king.
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the action inside kingship explicit.
basileia: Kingdom, reign.
βασιλεία
This noun connects the king’s title to the governance the accusation portrays as a threat.
THE PATTERN
Public charges can recast a person’s words or identity as a threat to power.
And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him:THE THREAD
And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?The same Greek verb appears here as “pervert,” with the ways of the Lord as its object. The shared root lets you hear the image beneath the accusation in Luke: a way turned aside, an allegation the verse reports without certifying.
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