What Does Luke 24:25 Mean in the King James?
Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
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 heart’s slowness is a lag in trusting the whole story the prophetic words tell.
THE MEANING
You can hear words that are true and still be slow to entrust yourself to the whole they disclose. The verse locates that delay in the heart’s trust, where scattered promises are received as one witness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only the parts of the prophetic witness that fit your expectations deserve trust.
THE ROOT
πιστεύειν
pisteuein
GROWS FROM
πιστευ-
pisteu-
To trust, believe, or entrust oneself.
The infinitive “to believe” is governed by “slow in heart,” locating the lag in trust. With “all” as its object, the verb gathers the prophetic words into one witness rather than a set of isolated fragments.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, faith.
πίστις
This related noun names the trust carried by the verb: believing has the shape of reliance, not bare recognition.
pistos: Firm, steady; reliable, trustworthy.
πιστός
The same word family describes what can be relied upon, joining the act of trusting to steadiness and reliability.
βραδεῖς
bradeis
GROWS FROM
βραδυ-
brady-
Slow or delayed in movement or response.
“slow” in this verse is bradeis. The same word family can describe the pace of a response or what seems delayed. Here it names a lag in the heart’s response to what has been spoken.
ALSO GROWS
bradys: Slow.
βραδύς
James 1:19 uses this word for being “slow to speak,” showing slowness as a pace of response.
bradynō: To delay, be slow.
βραδύνω
Second Peter 3:9 uses this verb in “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise”; what feels delayed can still be present.
καρδίᾳ
kardia
GROWS FROM
καρδι-
kardi-
The inner center of thought, will, and desire.
The verse locates trust in the inner center of perception and will. The word’s compounds show the heart as an inward reality that can be known and can resist; “slow of heart” describes delayed response at that level.
ALSO GROWS
kardiognōstēs: One who knows hearts.
καρδιογνώστης
Acts 1:24 uses this compound for one who knows the inner person, echoing the inward place where trust happens.
sklērokardia: Hardness of heart.
σκληροκαρδία
Mark 10:5 uses this compound for inward resistance, showing how the heart can hold back from what it hears.
THE PATTERN
The scriptural witness coheres across voices, and receiving its whole span reveals what isolated passages cannot.
The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.THE THREAD
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.Luke’s “believe” and John’s “believed” both translate πιστεύω (pisteuō, “to trust, believe”). Luke names delayed trust in the whole prophetic witness; Jesus’ words to Thomas show that trust can take hold beyond what sight supplies.
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