What Does Luke 8:5 Mean in the King James?
A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
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 first danger to the seed is a path so traveled that life cannot enter it.
THE MEANING
The word reaches you, yet a surface crossed so often that the seed stays exposed leaves it vulnerable: feet press it down and birds consume it before it takes root. Hearing has happened, but the seed’s life is not yet established in the ground.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that hearing a word means it has already taken hold; a word can arrive within reach and still be lost before it becomes rooted.
THE ROOT
κατεπατήθη
katepatēthē
GROWS FROM
πατέω
pateō
to tread or step on
The verb translated “trodden down” belongs to the same word family as περιπατέω (peripateō), meaning “walk.” English separates ordinary walking from crushing, but here the same foot-action turns the path’s traffic into pressure on the exposed seed.
ALSO GROWS
walk: to walk, move about
περιπατέω
The shared root links the ordinary movement along a path with what happens to seed left exposed on it.
trample: to tread down, trample
καταπατέω
This is the compound verb behind “trodden down”: feet on the path press what lies across it into the ground.
σπέρμα
sperma
GROWS FROM
σπειρ-
speir-
to sow or scatter seed
The Greek word-family joins the seed to the act of sowing: what the sower scatters is already a living possibility. The same noun can also mean offspring, carrying the image beyond a single planting to a future that grows from what is sown.
ALSO GROWS
sow: to scatter seed, sow
σπείρω
The words for “sower” and “sow” in this verse belong to this same family, joining the act to what is scattered.
offspring: seed; offspring, descendant
σπέρμα
The same word can name a planted seed or descendants: what falls carries a future beyond the moment it lands.
THE PATTERN
The word is living seed; fruit appears where it is received and rooted.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.THE THREAD
Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.The next verse identifies the seed as the word and the roadside hearers as those from whose hearts it is taken. It names the Slanderer as the one who removes it before trust and deliverance take shape.
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