What Does Luke 9:16 Mean in the King James?
Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.
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
Breaking is the hinge: the bread becomes provision for the multitude as it is opened into portions and given.
THE MEANING
What is in your hands can move beyond its measured amount as it passes through blessing, breaking, and giving. The bread reaches the multitude not by remaining whole, but by being broken and set before them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what is broken is only lost dissolves here: the broken loaves are the form the provision takes as it reaches the multitude.
THE ROOT
ἔκλασεν
éklasen
GROWS FROM
κλάω
klaō
Break, break off, or break into pieces.
“brake” in this verse is éklasen. The Greek verb makes breaking part of how the bread reaches the crowd: the whole loaves become portions that can be passed around. In the next verse, the remaining fragments are called κλάσματα (klasmata), pieces from this same root.
ALSO GROWS
klasma: Fragment; broken piece.
κλάσμα
Luke 9:17 uses this word for the fragments gathered after everyone eats, showing that breaking yields portions and leaves pieces behind.
klasis: Breaking; breaking of bread.
κλάσις
The same root names the act of breaking bread, linking this moment to other shared meals in the text.
εὐλόγησεν
eulógēsen
GROWS FROM
εὐλογέω (eulogeō), from εὖ (eu) + λόγος (logos)
Speak well; bless. The compound joins “well” with “word” or “speech.”
“blessed” in this verse is eulógēsen. Blessing here carries the sense of speaking well or invoking blessing over the food before it is broken and given. The sequence places blessing alongside the material act of sharing, rather than apart from it.
ALSO GROWS
eulogía: Blessing; words of blessing.
εὐλογία
This noun from the same word family keeps the link between blessing and words.
eulogētós: Blessed; worthy of blessing.
εὐλογητός
This related form shows the same word family describing one who receives or bears blessing.
THE PATTERN
Provision becomes shareable through a sequence of blessing, breaking, and giving.
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.Luke 24:30 repeats the feeding’s sequence almost word for word. The same verb, κλάω (klaō, “break”), links the bread broken for the multitude with bread broken at a shared table.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us