What Does Luke 5:3 Mean in the King James?
And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
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
A small shift of Simon’s working boat turns it into a place where a crowd can hear.
THE MEANING
An ordinary boat moves a little from shore, and a gathered crowd receives teaching from it. The verse holds open how a small change of position can create a new vantage point.
THE ROOT
ἐπαναγαγεῖν
epanagagein
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
To lead, bring, or carry.
“thrust out” in this verse is epanagagein. The request directs the boat a little outward from shore. Luke repeats this verb in the next verse for “Launch out into the deep,” so the small movement that gives the teaching a place to be heard opens into a farther movement.
ALSO GROWS
anagō: To lead or bring up, or to put out to sea.
ἀνάγω
This related form also describes movement onto the water, echoing the boat’s departure from land.
exagō: To lead or bring out from a place.
ἐξάγω
It shares the root’s sense of being led from one position toward another.
πλοίων
ploiōn
GROWS FROM
πλέω
pleō
To sail or travel by water.
“ships” in this verse is ploiōn. The word for boat is related to πλέω (pleō), “to sail”: the vessel is named through its movement across water. Simon’s working boat becomes a place of teaching as it moves just beyond the shore.
ALSO GROWS
ploion: A vessel used for travel by water.
πλοῖον
This is the boat Simon owns, whose movement creates the teaching place.
plous: A voyage or passage by sea.
πλοῦς
It keeps the focus on movement: the boat is a vessel whose defining work is going across water.
THE PATTERN
A vessel carrying a gathered people can also become the place from which a word reaches them.
And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.THE THREAD
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.Luke uses the same verb, ἐπανάγω (epanagō), for moving the boat a little from land here and launching it into the deep in the next verse. The movement that gives the teaching a place to be heard becomes the movement that carries Simon into deeper water.
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