What Does Luke 13:10 Mean?
He was teaching in one of the gatherings on the sabbath.
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 was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.THE KEY
The Greek word behind “synagogue” grows from “gather together,” placing the teaching among people already assembled.
THE MEANING
You encounter teaching already in motion within a gathered community, during the Sabbath. The scene holds assembly and instruction together: people are present where teaching unfolds.
THE ROOT
συναγωγῶν
synagōgōn
GROWS FROM
συνάγ-
synag-
gather together; bring into one place
“gatherings” in this verse is synagōgōn. The word belongs to the family συνάγω (synagō, “gather together”), joining συν (syn, “together”) and ἄγω (agō, “bring” or “lead”). The Greek family foregrounds the gathering itself, so teaching unfolds within a community drawn together.
ALSO GROWS
synagō: gather together; bring together
συνάγω
This verb names the action carried within the word for synagogue: people come together.
synagōgē: gathering; assembly; synagogue
συναγωγή
The verse’s location word belongs to the same family as “gathering,” linking the place with the people assembled there.
διδάσκων
didaskōn
GROWS FROM
διδασκ-
didask-
teach; instruct
The form διδάσκων (didaskōn, “teaching”) presents instruction as underway. Its root also appears in the words for “teacher” and “teaching,” connecting the act, the person teaching, and the instruction itself.
ALSO GROWS
didaskalos: teacher
διδάσκαλος
The same root names the person who carries out the teaching.
didaskalia: teaching; instruction
διδασκαλία
The same root names the instruction being shared, completing the link between teacher and act.
THE PATTERN
Instruction takes shape among people gathered to hear, learn, and receive teaching.
Assemble the people, the men, the women, and the little ones, and the sojourner within your gates, so that they may hear and respond, and so that they may learn, and be struck with awe of the LORD your God, and guard to do all the words of this instruction;For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who herald him, being read in the gatherings every sabbath day.And Jesus went around all Galilee, teaching in their gatherings, and crying out the good news of the governance, and healing every sickness and every weakness among the people.THE THREAD
And they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.Mark’s Greek uses συναγωγή (synagōgē, “gathering” or “assembly”) and ἐδίδασκεν (edidasken, “he was teaching”), from the same συνάγ- and διδασκ- families found in Luke. The shared roots reveal the same structure: people gather, and teaching is underway among them.
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