What Does Luke 12:40 Mean?

So be ready also, for the Son of Man comes in an hour you do not suppose.

Luke 12:40 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

THE KEY

What you only suppose about the hour cannot govern the arrival.

THE MEANING

The verse meets you now: the Son of Man comes at an hour your expectations do not contain. Readiness does not depend on your ability to predict that hour.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that you can know the decisive moment in advance and prepare only when it feels near.

THE ROOT

δοκεῖτε

dokeite

GROWS FROM

δοκ

dok

To seem, appear, or form an opinion.

The word translated “think” can also mean “seem” or “suppose.” Its family includes ⁨δόξα⁩ (doxa), meaning opinion, reputation, or glory, what is regarded and carries weight. The verse draws a line between what seems likely to you and the hour that arrives.

ALSO GROWS

dokeō: To seem, think, or suppose.

δοκέω

This is the verb behind “think not”: your supposition does not set the hour.

doxa: Opinion, reputation, or glory; what is regarded.

δόξα

The shared root links what seems to be true with what is held in regard, while the verse places the arrival beyond your expectation.

THE PATTERN

The decisive hour exceeds human forecast.

Do not praise yourself over tomorrow, for you do not know what the day will bear.

Proverbs 27:1 · SDVThe day ahead cannot be mastered by confidence about what it will bring.

For you yourselves know exactly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 · SDVThe arrival comes beyond the timing a person expects.

Remember, then, how you have taken hold and heard. Guard it, and turn. If you do not stay awake, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

Revelation 3:3 · SDVThe hour remains unknown even as the verse names the arrival directly.

THE THREAD

For this reason, you too become ready, for the Son of Man comes in the hour that does not appear to you.

Matthew 24:44 · SDV

Matthew uses the same Greek verb, ⁨δοκέω⁩ (dokeō), for “think.” The shared wording ties readiness to the limits of supposition: your estimate cannot govern the hour of arrival.

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