What Does Luke 7:41 Mean in the King James?
There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
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 amounts differ tenfold, but both people stand in the same relation: each owes the same creditor.
THE MEANING
You see two accounts measured at very different amounts, yet both people are debtors before one creditor. The difference changes what each owes, not the shared condition the verse names.
THE ROOT
ὤφειλεν
ōpheilen
GROWS FROM
ὀφειλ-
opheil-
To owe or be under obligation.
The Greek word family behind “owed” also names a “debtor” and a “debt.” The amounts differ, but the shared root keeps both people inside the same relation of obligation.
ALSO GROWS
opheiletēs: A person who owes.
ὀφειλέτης
The verse calls both people debtors, naming their shared relation even as their accounts differ.
opheilēma: What is owed; an obligation due.
ὀφείλημα
This is the noun for what is owed in Matthew’s line about debts, linking an account to the same root as the act of owing here.
THE PATTERN
Debt places unequal accounts within a lender–borrower relationship where power or release is at stake.
And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.THE THREAD
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.The word rendered “debts” belongs to the same Greek word family as “owed” here. Matthew’s line pairs those debts with forgiveness, release, so the account and its letting go meet in one sentence.
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