What Does Luke 8:31 Mean in the King James?

And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.

Luke 8:31 · 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

The beings who terrorize others still beg, because the deep is a destination they cannot refuse if Jesus commands it.

THE MEANING

Here the beings appeal to Jesus not to command their departure into the abyss. Their plea exposes a boundary around their power: they can beg, but they do not determine whether the command is given. The deep is a destination they fear, and its command belongs to him.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that destructive powers are beyond restraint breaks here: they plead with the one whose command can send them into the deep.

THE ROOT

ἄβυσσον

abysson

GROWS FROM

βαθ-

bath-

Depth; what lies far below, with the word here carrying the sense of a bottomless depth.

“deep” in this verse is abysson. The word carries more than the sense of a place far below: it names a depth conceived as bottomless. Here that depth is a destination the beings fear entering, not simply a measure of distance.

ALSO GROWS

bathos: Depth; profoundness.

βάθος

This branch names depth itself, showing the shared root beneath the abyss as both physical depth and profoundness.

bathys: Deep; profound.

βαθύς

This branch describes what extends far down, illuminating why the abyss is presented as a realm beyond ordinary reach.

THE PATTERN

The abyss is a real depth under authority: access, descent, and confinement are commanded, questioned, or sealed.

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?

Job 38:16 · KJVThe question treats the sea’s depth as territory whose exploration marks the edge of human reach.

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Revelation 9:1 · KJVThe key to the bottomless pit is given, placing access to the abyss under authority.

And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Revelation 20:3 · KJVThe pit is shut and sealed around a power that deceives, showing that even its prisoner remains subject to limits.

THE THREAD

Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

Romans 10:7 · KJV

The same Greek word for the abyss appears here as in Luke, rendered “deep” in both verses. In Luke it is a destination the beings fear; in Romans it marks the depth imagined in a descent to bring Christ up.

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