What Does Luke 11:53 Mean?
As he went out from there, the writers and the separated ones began to press him hard, and to draw words from his mouth about many things.
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 as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:THE KEY
The questions are a way to draw words from his mouth until something can be seized.
THE MEANING
Hostile questioning can multiply around you while appearing to seek your words; its aim can be to draw out a phrase that can be used for accusation. The next verse makes that aim plain: they seek something from his mouth to accuse him with.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that sustained questioning proves a desire for clarity dissolves here: questions can be bait designed to produce a phrase that can be seized.
THE ROOT
ἀποστοματίζειν
apostomatizein
GROWS FROM
στόμα
stoma
Mouth; the related verb ἀποστοματίζω (apostomatizō) means to question closely or prompt someone to speak.
“draw words from his mouth” in this verse is apostomatizein. The Greek word keeps the mouth in view: this is pressure aimed at eliciting speech. The next verse repeats the mouth-root as they seek to catch something from his mouth, revealing that his words themselves are the target.
ALSO GROWS
stoma: mouth
στόμα
Luke 11:54 uses this noun when it says they seek to catch something from his mouth; the questions aim at what he says.
apostomatizō: question closely; prompt someone to speak
ἀποστοματίζω
This related verb names the pressing for speech that the KJV renders as provoking him to speak.
ἐνέχειν
enechein
GROWS FROM
ἔχω
echō
Hold or have; in the compound ἐνέχω (enechō), hold against or be hostile toward.
“press him hard” in this verse is enechein. “Urge vehemently” can sound like forceful debate, but the Greek carries hostility: they press him while holding against him. The many questions arise from antagonism, and the following verse shows them seeking words to use as grounds for accusation.
ALSO GROWS
echō: hold; have
ἔχω
The basic verb supplies the sense of holding carried in ἐνέχω (enechō).
enochē: liability; guilt
ἐνοχή
This related noun names being held liable, echoing the movement from hostile questioning toward accusation.
THE PATTERN
Speech becomes a snare when the listener seeks words to seize rather than meaning to receive.
Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even the bitter word.Those who make a human miss the mark by a word, and set a snare for the one who reproves in the gate, and bend the aligned ones aside for emptiness.Then the separated ones went and took counsel how they might ensnare him in his word.THE THREAD
Lying in ambush for him, and seeking to hunt something from his mouth, so that they might accuse him.The same mouth-root continues: they seek to catch something from his mouth. The next line reveals the purpose of the questioning, to draw out speech that can become an accusation.
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