What Does Luke 3:4 Mean in the King James?
As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
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 wilderness is not outside the Lord’s way; it is where the voice names and straightens the worn track.
THE MEANING
A voice rises in the wilderness you meet now, and the Lord’s way is made ready there. Its paths are tracks worn by passage, not abstract ideals; what is crooked can be made straight into a way through.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wilderness means the Lord’s way is absent: the voice cries there, and the way is prepared there.
THE ROOT
τρίβους
tribous
GROWS FROM
τριβ-
trib-
Rubbing or wearing down; a track formed by passage.
The word translated “paths” belongs to a word-family of rubbing and wearing down. English hides the worn track beneath the word: these are paths shaped by passage, and the verse says they are made straight.
ALSO GROWS
tribō: To rub or wear down.
τρίβω
The verb behind the word for paths makes their worn, traveled character visible.
tribē: Rubbing, friction, or wear.
τριβή
This branch keeps the image of contact and wear inside the path the verse describes.
εὐθείας
eutheias
GROWS FROM
εὐθύ-
euthy-
Straight, direct, or right.
The Greek word for “straight” carries a sense of directness, and its adverbial form can mean “at once.” English preserves the shape of a straight path but not the echo of direct, unimpeded movement.
ALSO GROWS
euthys: Straight or direct; also “immediately” as an adverb.
εὐθύς
The same word can name a direct line and movement that proceeds at once.
euthynō: To make straight, guide, or direct.
εὐθύνω
This related verb holds straightening and guidance together.
ὁδόν
hodon
GROWS FROM
ὁδ-
hod-
Road, route, or way.
The Lord’s way is a route of movement, not a static ideal. Greek compounds built from this word can name a way out or the act of guiding, so the image holds direction and passage together.
ALSO GROWS
exodos: A way out or a departure.
ἔξοδος
This compound shows the way as a route out of a place or condition.
hodēgeō: To lead or guide.
ὁδηγέω
The way is also the course along which someone is guided.
THE PATTERN
The Lord’s guidance turns crooked or untraversed terrain into a direct way of passage.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.THE THREAD
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.John 1:23 repeats the same Greek noun ὁδόν (hodon, “way”) and the call to straighten it, so the Lord’s way is a route made direct. Luke’s word for “paths,” τρίβους (tribous, “worn tracks”), makes the image tactile: the route crosses ground already shaped by passage.
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