What Does Luke 10:14 Mean?
But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.THE KEY
What has been shown to you becomes part of what you bear at judgment.
THE MEANING
You stand within the reach of what has been shown to you. At judgment, Tyre and Sidon are borne more lightly than you; the comparison gives your exposure real weight. What reaches you can make refusal more answerable, not less.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that receiving more makes you automatically safer dissolves here: greater exposure can mean greater accountability.
THE ROOT
ἀνεκτότερον
anektoteron
GROWS FROM
ἔχω
echō
to have or hold; in the related verb ἀνέχω (anechō), to hold up, endure, or bear
“more tolerable” in this verse is anektoteron. The Greek comparative grows from the language of holding up and enduring: judgment is described by what can be borne. The difference here is a difference in weight, not a casual ranking.
ALSO GROWS
anechō: hold up, endure, bear
ἀνέχω
This related verb supplies the sense behind “tolerable”: something that can be borne.
anechomai: endure, bear with
ἀνέχομαι
The same word family connects tolerability with enduring what is laid upon someone.
anektos: bearable, tolerable
ἀνεκτός
This is the adjective behind the comparative: the verse weighs which judgment is more bearable.
κρίσει
krisei
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
to distinguish, decide, or judge
The Greek word for judgment belongs to a family about discerning and deciding. Here that judgment draws a sharp distinction between Tyre and Sidon and the people addressed.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: distinguish, decide, judge
κρίνω
The root makes judgment an act of discernment that separates the outcomes named in the verse.
kritēs: judge
κριτής
This related word names the one who makes the distinction.
krima: judgment, verdict
κρίμα
This branch names the decision or verdict that follows the act of judging.
THE PATTERN
Judgment weighs response in proportion to what has been given, known, or made plain.
Only you have I known, out of all the families of the ground. Therefore I will visit upon you all your crookednesses.But the one who did not know, and did what deserves blows, will be beaten with few blows. To everyone to whom much is given, much will be sought from him, and to whom much has been placed beside him, they will ask all the more of him.If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no falling short. But now they have no cloak for their falling short.THE THREAD
But I say to you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.Matthew uses the same Greek comparative, ἀνεκτότερον (anektoteron, “more bearable”), beside the same judgment language. The repeated phrasing makes the verse’s measure unmistakable: judgment is weighed by what can be borne.
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