What Does Luke 4:29 Mean in the King James?
And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
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 crowd first throws Jesus out of its shared space, then tries to throw him out of life.
THE MEANING
The crowd refuses to leave its judgment at words: it drives Jesus from the city and takes him to the cliff to kill him. Exclusion becomes physical violence, moving from outside the community to over its edge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that pushing someone outside a community is harmless is undone here: the crowd’s expulsion is part of an attempt to kill him.
THE ROOT
ἐξέβαλον
exebalon
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or cast.
“thrust him out” in this verse is exebalon. ἐξέβαλον (exebalon) is a form of ἐκβάλλω (ekballō, “throw out” or “drive out”), built on βάλλω (ballō, “throw”). The movement then sharpens into κατακρημνίσαι (katakremnisai, “hurl down a precipice”): rejection moves from the city’s outside to the edge of death.
ALSO GROWS
ekballō: Throw out; drive out.
ἐκβάλλω
This is the verb behind the crowd’s first act: Jesus is physically expelled from the city.
bolē: A throwing or cast.
βολή
This related form preserves the force of the movement: the crowd’s rejection is enacted physically.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, a crowd’s act of casting someone outside becomes the path to violence against that person.
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.And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.THE THREAD
And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.Both verses use ἐκβάλλω (ekballō, “throw out”) and the phrase “outside the city.” In each, expulsion is joined to a lethal assault: the crowd tries to hurl Jesus from the height, while Stephen is stoned.
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