What Does Luke 23:5 Mean in the King James?
And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.
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 that Jesus stirs the people uses the same Greek verb later used for the chief priests stirring the crowd against him.
THE MEANING
You hear the accusation intensify as Jesus’ teaching is said to move through all Judea, from Galilee to this place. The message’s reach is framed as agitation, revealing how teaching that moves among people can be treated as a threat. Yet the same verb is used for the chief priests stirring the crowd elsewhere, so the accusation does not settle who is moving whom.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A stirred crowd proves that the person accused is the source of its unrest.
THE ROOT
ἀνασείει
anaseíei
GROWS FROM
σείω
seíō
To shake, agitate, or set in motion.
“stirreth up” in this verse is anaseíei. The charge uses a word for shaking people into movement, not simply for teaching an idea. Its reach across Judea is presented as agitation, while the same verb elsewhere describes the chief priests moving the crowd.
ALSO GROWS
seíō: To shake or move.
σείω
The compound verb in this verse carries that image of people being set in motion.
seismós: A shaking or earthquake.
σεισμός
This related word makes the force of the root concrete: the language of agitation carries the sense of a disturbance that moves what seemed settled.
ἐπίσχυον
epískhyuon
GROWS FROM
ἰσχύω
ischýō
To be strong or prevail; here, to grow more forceful.
The verb carries the sense of growing stronger or pressing harder, so the accusation intensifies as it is made. “More fierce” catches its force while the Greek also carries this increasing insistence.
ALSO GROWS
ischýs: Strength or might.
ἰσχύς
The noun makes visible the force that is increasing in the accusers’ claim.
ischyrós: Strong or powerful.
ἰσχυρός
This related adjective echoes the intensifying pressure behind their words.
THE PATTERN
The movement of teaching among people is called disorder or instruction depending on the voice that names it.
And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.THE THREAD
But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.Mark uses the same Greek verb, ἀνασείω (anaseíō, “stir up”), that appears here: there it describes the chief priests moving the crowd to demand Barabbas. The shared root turns the accusation inside out, the same act of moving people is named on both sides of the conflict.
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