What Does Luke 10:31 Mean?
And by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed on the opposite side.
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
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.THE KEY
The encounter is called a coincidence, but the priest’s passage to the opposite side is a distinct movement after he sees the wounded man.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where need enters view: seeing suffering does not itself bring you near. Recognition and a path that keeps to the far side can occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Seeing someone’s need does not mean you have already responded to it; recognition and care can come apart.
THE ROOT
ἀντιπαρῆλθεν
antiparēlthen
GROWS FROM
ἐρχ- (with παρά + ἀντί)
Come or go; combined with παρά (alongside, by) and ἀντί (opposite), the verb means to pass by on the opposite side.
“passed on the opposite side” in this verse is antiparēlthen. The Greek verb compresses the crossing into one word: he goes by on the opposite side. Since this follows “he saw him,” the sentence holds perception and withdrawal together without telling us why that distance remains.
ALSO GROWS
erchomai: come, go
ἔρχομαι
This is the motion base within the compound: the priest goes on.
parerchomai: pass by, pass alongside
παρέρχομαι
Adding παρά gives the sense of passing along or by.
antiparerchomai: pass by on the opposite side
ἀντιπαρέρχομαι
The full compound makes the distance spatially explicit; “other side” is built into its direction.
εἶδεν
eiden
GROWS FROM
ὁράω (aorist stem εἰδ-)
See, look upon, perceive.
In Luke 10:33, the Samaritan’s “saw” is ἰδών (idōn), another aorist form of ὁράω. The same perception marks both encounters, so what changes is not what is visible but what follows seeing.
ALSO GROWS
horaō: see, perceive
ὁράω
This is the verb behind the priest’s “saw,” linking sight with perception.
horama: vision, what is seen
ὅραμα
This related word names what comes into view, while the verse turns attention to the response that follows.
THE PATTERN
Seeing need exposes a fork between concealing distance and moving toward help.
You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen along the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely stand them up with him.Whoever has the world's means of living, and gazes upon his brother in need, and shuts his inner parts away from him, how does the love of God remain in him?THE THREAD
But a certain Samaritan, walking the road, came where he was, and when he saw him, his insides moved over him.The Samaritan’s “saw” comes from the same Greek verb as the priest’s. The contrast opens in what follows perception: the priest passes on the opposite side, while the Samaritan’s sight is paired with compassion.
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