What Does Luke 5:22 Mean in the King James?

But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?

Luke 5:22 · KJV

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

Jesus does not merely hear what is said; he perceives the inward argument and asks it to step into the open.

THE MEANING

Your inner reasoning is not invisible to Jesus. “Thoughts” here points to inward deliberation, and his question brings that hidden reasoning into speech.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that unspoken reasoning is hidden simply because it has not been said dissolves here.

THE ROOT

διαλογισμούς

dialogismous

GROWS FROM

λογίζομαι

logizomai

To reckon, consider, or work something out.

English “thoughts” can sound like passing ideas; this word points toward deliberation or inner argument. The previous verse uses a related verb for the scribes’ reasoning, linking what they hold inside with the argument they form.

ALSO GROWS

dialogizomai: To reason, deliberate, or discuss.

διαλογίζομαι

This related verb describes the scribes’ reasoning in Luke 5:21, showing that the “thoughts” Jesus perceives are active deliberations.

logismos: A calculation or reasoning.

λογισμός

It preserves the sense of weighing something out, showing the heart’s thoughts as considered reasoning.

ἐπιγνούς

epignous

GROWS FROM

γινώσκω

ginōskō

To know, recognize, or perceive; knowing by encounter, not merely by information.

“perceived” in this verse is epignous. The verb carries the sense of recognizing or knowing. The sentence presents Jesus as perceiving what is being reasoned inwardly, before it is spoken aloud.

ALSO GROWS

ginōskō: To know, recognize, or perceive.

γινώσκω

This base verb supplies the knowing within Jesus’ act of perception.

epignōsis: Recognition or knowledge.

ἐπίγνωσις

This related noun shares the prefixed word family and echoes the movement from seeing something to recognizing what it is.

THE PATTERN

The heart’s hidden reasoning remains visible to God and can be discerned before it is spoken.

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

Psalm 139:2 · KJVThe psalm names thought as already understood, even when it is still far from speech.

But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7 · KJVHuman sight stops at outward appearance, while the LORD’s regard reaches the heart.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 · KJVThe word is pictured as discerning the heart’s thoughts and intentions, carrying the same inward exposure into the reader’s present.

THE THREAD

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?

Luke 5:21 · KJV

The scribes’ unspoken argument in 5:21 becomes the very thing Jesus addresses in 5:22. “Reason” and “thoughts” name the same inward deliberation, first formed within them and then brought into the open.

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