What Does Luke 11:46 Mean?
And he said, Woe to you also, experts in the instruction! For you load people with burdens too heavy to carry, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with a single finger.
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 he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.THE KEY
The weight is not only in the burden, but in the refusal of those who impose it to touch its cost.
THE MEANING
This verse names an imbalance that still appears when an authority sets obligations for others but never shares their weight. The burden and the refusal to come near it belong together; the verse exposes both.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a demand is just simply because an authority imposes it, even when that authority refuses to share its cost.
THE ROOT
δυσβάστακτα
dysbastakta
GROWS FROM
βαστα- (basta-), from βαστάζω (bastazō)
to carry or bear
“too heavy to carry” in this verse is dysbastakta. The phrase describes the burdens as difficult to carry. Its carrying-root echoes the contrast at the heart of the verse: others are made to bear the load while its authors will not even touch it.
ALSO GROWS
bastazete: bear, carry (Galatians 6:2)
βαστάζετε
The same root appears in a call to bear one another’s burdens, turning carrying into shared participation.
bastazōn: carrying (John 19:17)
βαστάζων
The root also names carrying a physical load, keeping the image grounded in weight and contact.
φορτίζετε
phortizete
GROWS FROM
φορτ-
phort-
load, cargo, freight
“load” in this verse is phortizete. The verb for loading and the noun for burdens belong to the same word family. The verse pictures obligations as freight placed onto people, not as weightless instruction.
ALSO GROWS
phortos: cargo, load
φόρτος
This branch makes the freight-like image of an imposed burden visible.
phortion: load, burden
φορτίον
This related noun reinforces that what people are given to carry is a load.
νομικοῖς
nomikois
GROWS FROM
νομ-
nom-
instruction, custom, established ordering
“experts in the instruction” in this verse is nomikois. The title connects these experts with νόμος (nomos), meaning instruction or custom. The verse exposes the danger when authority over instruction turns it into weight for others while staying untouched by that weight.
ALSO GROWS
nomos: instruction, custom
νόμος
This is the word family behind the title and links the verse’s authorities to instruction.
nomizō: regard as customary, consider
νομίζω
This related form shows the family’s connection to what is treated as established practice.
THE PATTERN
Authority reveals its character in whether it leaves weight on others or enters the work of carrying it.
Woe to those who carve out empty decrees, and who write out the toil they have written.For they tie up heavy loads, hard to lift, and lay them on the shoulders of people, but they themselves will not move them, even with one of their fingers.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.The difficult-to-bear word in Luke contains the same βαστα- (basta-, carry or bear) root as “Bear” here. Luke exposes a load whose authors will not touch it; Galatians shows carrying as something shared.
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