What Does Luke 9:40 Mean in the King James?
And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not.
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 real appeal and a real need do not create capacity in the people asked to help; the verse names their inability plainly.
THE MEANING
An urgent need can reach the people expected to help and still exceed their ability. The verse gives that limit an honest name: they could not.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that if a need is real, the people asked must be able to meet it.
THE ROOT
ἠδυνήθησαν
ēdynēthēsan
GROWS FROM
δύναμαι
dynamai
To be able; to have strength or capacity.
“could not” in this verse is ēdynēthēsan. The verb names an actual limit in ability: the disciples lack the capacity to do what is asked. Its family also names power and possibility, placing the need beside a clear limit in what they can do.
ALSO GROWS
dynamis: Power or capacity.
δύναμις
This branch makes the verse’s stated lack of ability a question of capacity.
dynatos: Able; possible.
δυνατός
This branch links what someone can do with what is possible, sharpening the contrast between the request and the disciples’ limit.
παρεκάλεσα
parekalesa
GROWS FROM
παρακαλέω
parakaleō
To appeal, urge, encourage, or comfort, depending on context.
“besought” in this verse is parekalesa. The father’s word is an appeal for help. This word family also carries the sense of encouragement and comfort, but here the appeal meets an inability.
ALSO GROWS
paraklēsis: An appeal, encouragement, or consolation.
παράκλησις
This branch shows the plea as an appeal for help, not a casual request.
paraklētos: An advocate or helper; in some contexts, a comforter.
παράκλητος
This branch echoes the need for help that the father brings to the disciples.
ἐκβαλεῖν
ekbalein
GROWS FROM
ἐκβάλλω
ekballō
To throw or drive something out.
“cast him out” in this verse is ekbalein. The request is for the harmful presence to be put out; it is a concrete demand for removal. The compound joins ἐκ (ek, out) with βάλλω (ballō, throw or cast), setting that demand beside the disciples’ stated lack of power.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: To throw or cast.
βάλλω
This is the action carried within the request to cast the affliction out.
ekbolē: A casting out or expulsion.
ἐκβολή
This related noun makes the outward direction of the requested removal explicit.
THE PATTERN
A real need can exceed the capacity of the person or system first asked to meet it.
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;THE THREAD
And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.Mark uses the same Greek verb-family for “could not”: οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν (ouk ēdynēthēsan, they were not able). The repeated wording keeps the disciples’ inability visible at the center of the father’s appeal.
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