What Does Luke 6:2 Mean in the King James?
And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?
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 charge turns on “do”: the same Greek verb soon asks whether Sabbath action is good or evil.
THE MEANING
You meet a boundary named as lawful, and the question presses on which actions it excludes. The verse shows how a day set apart can become a test of permitted action while the meaning of the act remains unresolved. Its tension is present whenever a rule is applied before what an action brings about is named.
THE ROOT
ποιεῖτε
poieite
GROWS FROM
ποι-
The Greek base ποι- (poi-) carries the sense of doing or making, bringing an action about.
English “do” can sound like bare activity, while the Greek verb also carries the sense of making or bringing something about. The same verb returns in Luke 6:9, where the question becomes whether Sabbath action does good or evil, saves life or destroys it.
ALSO GROWS
poieō: to do, make
ποιέω
This is the dictionary form behind the verse’s “do ye,” keeping the action itself at the center of the charge.
poiēma: a thing made, a work
ποίημα
This branch makes the verb’s “bringing about” sense visible: an action has an outcome, not only a motion.
poiētēs: maker, doer
ποιητής
This branch names the one who acts, linking the disputed deed to the person bringing it about.
THE PATTERN
Sabbath rest serves living beings, so its boundary is read alongside what it protects.
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:THE THREAD
Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?The verb ποιέω (poieō), “do” or “make,” appears in both verses. Luke 6:9 turns the accusation’s open-ended question about doing into a sharper one: what does the action bring about, good or evil, life or destruction?
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