What Does Luke 9:41 Mean in the King James?
And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.
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
Jesus names a generation’s broken trust and bent direction while describing his presence with them as the work of bearing them.
THE MEANING
Jesus sees a generation whose trust is absent and whose direction is twisted. His question gives voice to the weight of remaining with them, then his command brings the boy’s need near. The verse speaks now wherever failure and need stand together: neither is hidden from view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being borne does not mean a distortion is unseen or approved; Jesus names the failure while remaining present to those living inside it.
THE ROOT
ἀνέξομαι
anéxomai
GROWS FROM
ἔχω
ékhō, to hold, have.
The word rendered “suffer” carries the sense of bearing or enduring. Its root is the ordinary Greek verb “to hold”: Jesus describes staying with this generation as holding up under its weight.
ALSO GROWS
ékhō: hold, have
ἔχω
The base verb makes the holding sense in “suffer” visible.
katékhō: hold fast, possess
κατέχω
This compound shows the root’s sense of holding something in one’s grasp.
antékhō: hold against, withstand
ἀντέχω
This form reveals how the same holding family can express endurance under pressure.
ἄπιστος
ápistos
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-, firm, trustworthy; the word family carries trust and reliability.
“Faithless” names the absence of trust, not merely a lack of religious words. The related forms move between trust, trusting, and being steady, so the fracture here is a failure to lean one’s full weight on what is trustworthy.
ALSO GROWS
pístis: trust, faith
πίστις
This noun shows the trust absent in ἄπιστος.
pisteúō: trust, believe
πιστεύω
The verb makes trust an act of relying, rather than a label one possesses.
pistós: trustworthy, steady
πιστός
This branch shows the firmness that the word “faithless” lacks.
διεστραμμένη
diestramménē
GROWS FROM
στρεφ-
streph-, to turn, twist.
This form comes from διαστρέφω (diastréphō, turn aside or distort), built on the στρεφ- family of turning. “Perverse” therefore carries an image of a shared direction twisted out of alignment, not merely a label for badness.
ALSO GROWS
stréphō: turn, twist
στρέφω
This base form supplies the turning image within “perverse.”
epistréphō: turn back, return
ἐπιστρέφω
This compound shows the same turning family can describe a change of direction.
apostréphō: turn away, turn aside
ἀποστρέφω
This form makes the family’s sense of turning away explicit.
THE PATTERN
Communal distortion is named plainly while the burden of remaining present is voiced alongside it.
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;THE THREAD
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.“Forbearing” translates ἀνεχόμενοι (anechómenoi, bearing or enduring), from the same ἔχω (ékhō, hold) word family as “suffer” in Luke. Colossians sets that bearing alongside release, revealing how endurance and letting go can meet.
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