What Does Luke 11:50 Mean?
So that the blood of all the prophets, poured out from the laying down of the world, may be sought out from this generation.
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
That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;THE KEY
The blood of every prophet remains an account demanded of the generation standing before it.
THE MEANING
This verse places the reader within the reach of an unclosed account: the prophets’ blood is still being sought from this generation. Violence does not erase the witness or end its claim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that silencing a truth-teller makes the truth disappear is undone: the blood remains a witness, and the account remains due.
THE ROOT
ἐκζητηθῇ
ekzētēthē
GROWS FROM
ζητ- (zēt-), the stem of ζητέω (zēteō)
To seek or look for; with ἐκ- (ek-, out), to seek out, demand, or require.
“sought out” in this verse is ekzētēthē. The English “required” preserves the demand, while the Greek verb also carries the act of seeking something out. The bloodshed is not lost to time: its account is pursued in this generation.
ALSO GROWS
zēteō: Seek or look for.
ζητέω
The base verb shows that the demand begins as a search: what was done is brought into view.
ekzēteō: Seek out, demand, or require.
ἐκζητέω
This compounded form names the pursuit of the prophets’ blood and echoes the demand for an account in Genesis 9:5.
zētēsis: Inquiry or dispute.
ζήτησις
This noun carries the same seeking stem into an active inquiry, underscoring that the blood’s claim is not settled by silence.
THE PATTERN
The blood of the slain is not silenced by death; it remains a testimony that is heard and answered.
And the LORD said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.And they cry out with a great voice, saying, How long, Set-Apart and true Master, will you not judge and avenge our blood against those who settle upon the earth?and to Jesus, the one who stands between, of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks stronger than Abel.THE THREAD
And surely the blood of your living souls I will seek out. From the hand of every beast I will seek it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of each man's brother, I will seek out the living soul of man.Genesis places blood within an account demanded from the hand responsible for it. In the Septuagint, both verses use ἐκζητέω (ekzēteō, seek out or demand): Luke brings the same pursuit to the prophets’ blood and this generation.
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