What Does Luke 8:9 Mean in the King James?
And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
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 sets an image beside your life, so its hidden meaning can appear in the space between them.
THE MEANING
The disciples stand before an image whose meaning is not yet clear, and they ask Jesus what it holds. You meet the same opening: a story can sit beside your life until the correspondence comes into view. Understanding begins here in the honest question.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that not understanding means you have failed; the disciples ask while the parable is still unclear to them.
THE ROOT
παραβολή
parabolē
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw, cast, or put; with παρά, the compound carries the sense of placing something beside something else.
The parable’s name preserves the motion of placing one thing beside another: its story sits alongside the life you recognize. The disciples’ question marks the moment when the likeness is not yet clear, and asking opens the space where the two can be seen together.
ALSO GROWS
paraballō: To place beside, compare.
παραβάλλω
This compound gives the parable its shape: an image is set beside life so their relation can be seen.
symballō: To bring together, compare, consider; rendered “pondered” in Luke 2:19.
συμβάλλω
The disciples ask what the image means; this related word shows the work of considering as bringing things together.
THE PATTERN
Meaning opens as what is heard is held beside what is seen and honestly questioned.
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.THE THREAD
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.The word rendered “pondered” is συμβάλλω (symballō), meaning “bring together, compare, consider,” from the same βάλλω (ballō) family as “parable.” What is placed alongside can also be gathered and considered in the heart.
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