What Does Luke 8:4 Mean in the King James?

And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable:

Luke 8:4 · 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

A parable places truth beside ordinary life, so the crowd arriving from every city can meet meaning through an image.

THE MEANING

You are among many who come from different places, and Jesus speaks through a parable: a story set beside your life so its meaning can meet you there. The image is not separate from the world you know; it is where the word becomes visible.

THE ROOT

παραβολῆς

parabolēs

GROWS FROM

⁨βάλλω⁩ (ballō, throw or cast), with ⁨παρά⁩ (para, beside)

⁨βάλλω⁩ means to throw or cast; ⁨παρά⁩ means beside. Together they form the image of placing one thing beside another.

The Greek word for parable carries the picture of setting one thing alongside another. An everyday image stands beside the truth it reveals, so meaning comes through comparison rather than abstraction.

ALSO GROWS

paraballō: To set one thing alongside another.

παραβάλλω

This verb makes the parable’s underlying action clear: an image is set beside the meaning it carries.

ekballō: To throw or drive something away.

ἐκβάλλω

It shares ⁨βάλλω⁩, the act of casting; the prefix changes the direction, while ⁨παρά⁩ in parable turns the image alongside its meaning.

THE PATTERN

A parable carries meaning by placing an image beside what it reveals.

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

Psalm 78:2 · KJVThe speaker gives voice to a saying through a parable, carrying meaning by way of an image.

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

Matthew 13:34 · KJVJesus speaks to the multitude through parables, meeting the crowd with this image-bearing form.

And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.

Mark 4:33 · KJVThe parables carry the word to hearers through images they can receive.

THE THREAD

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

Matthew 13:34 · KJV

Matthew uses the same Greek word, ⁨παραβολή⁩ (parabolē, “parable; comparison”), for this form of teaching. Beside Luke’s scene, it shows the gathered crowd meeting the word through images set alongside the life they know.

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