What Does Luke 23:27 Mean in the King James?

And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.

Luke 23:27 · KJV

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

Here, grief is not a view from the roadside; it follows the condemned and makes sorrow visible.

THE MEANING

When you see someone suffering, sorrow can remain visibly beside them even when it cannot change what is happening. This verse holds that helplessness without erasing the mourners or softening the violence.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that compassion matters only when it can prevent harm: the women’s grief does not stop the violence, yet their presence has a place in the scene.

THE ROOT

ἐκόπτοντο

ekoptonto

GROWS FROM

κοπ-

kop-

To strike, cut, or hew.

The verb behind “bewailed” carries the force of striking; in mourning, it can describe beating the breast. Its English gloss can make lament sound like a named feeling, while the Greek keeps the body’s blow inside the action.

ALSO GROWS

ekkoptō: To cut off or cut out.

ἐκκόπτω

The same root that gives mourning its striking force also carries the sense of cutting something away.

proskoptō: To strike against or stumble.

προσκόπτω

This branch preserves the root’s physical force: a strike can unsettle a body and make it stumble.

THE PATTERN

Scripture gives grief a public, shared form around suffering and loss.

And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.

Luke 8:52 · KJVGrief gathers openly around a suffering child, with the same bodily language of mourning.

And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.

2 Samuel 1:12 · KJVThe people give their grief shared, visible form in response to those lost to violence.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

Romans 12:15 · KJVGrief is treated as something people can enter together, not something the suffering person must carry alone.

THE THREAD

And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.

Luke 8:52 · KJV

The Greek verb ⁨ἐκόπτοντο⁩ (ekoptonto, “bewailed”) appears in both verses, keeping the bodily force of mourning visible. The repeated word links grief following Jesus on the road with grief gathered around a child, where Jesus is present within the mourning.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us