What Does Luke 4:4 Mean in the King James?
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
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 Greek says bread is not the sole basis of being alive: God’s word belongs to life itself.
THE MEANING
Your life is not sustained by food alone. God’s word is part of what sustains your living now; what you consume is real provision, but it is not the whole source of life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that meeting physical needs is enough to account for a whole human life.
THE ROOT
ζήσεται
zēsetai
GROWS FROM
ζάω
ζάω (zaō): to live, to be alive.
ζήσεται (zēsetai, will live) is a form of ζάω (zaō), the same Greek family as ζωή (zōē, life). The verse places God’s word within the conditions of living itself, while keeping bread as real but incomplete provision.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: life
ζωή
This noun from the same family names life itself, linking the verb “live” directly to life as a whole.
zōon: living being, creature
ζῷον
This word for a living creature keeps the verse grounded in embodied life while opening the question of what sustains it.
THE PATTERN
Life receives sustenance from God’s word as well as from food.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.THE THREAD
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.Luke’s ῥήματι (rhēmati, word or utterance) and John’s ῥήματα (rhēmata, words or utterances) are forms of the same Greek noun. John makes the life connection explicit: Jesus’ spoken words are joined to πνεῦμα (pneuma, breath) and life.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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