What Does Luke 13:18 Mean?

So he said, "To what is the governance of God like? And to what shall I make it like?"

Luke 13:18 · 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

Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?

THE KEY

Jesus asks you to recognize God’s governance by how it unfolds, through a likeness you can perceive.

THE MEANING

God’s governance meets you as something recognizable through a living likeness. The question draws your attention to how that governance works, with the image that follows showing a small beginning opening into expansive life.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

God’s governance is too abstract to recognize in ordinary life; Jesus presents it as something grasped through a familiar likeness.

THE ROOT

βασιλεία

basileia

GROWS FROM

βασιλευ-

basileu-

reigning; royal rule or governance

English “kingdom” can suggest a territory, while ⁨βασιλεία⁩ (basileia, royal rule) points to governance in action. Jesus’ question directs you to notice how God’s governance operates, made concrete by the seed image that follows.

ALSO GROWS

basileus: king

βασιλεύς

The king is the one who exercises the rule; this branch brings the active sense of governance into view.

basileuō: to reign

βασιλεύω

This verb names the action contained in ⁨βασιλεία⁩: ruling or governing.

basilikos: royal; belonging to a king

βασιλικός

This branch names what carries the character or authority of royal rule.

ὁμοιώσω

homoiōsō

GROWS FROM

ὁμοιο-

homoio-

like, similar; making a likeness

“make it like” in this verse is homoiōsō. The two questions repeat the Greek likeness-family: ⁨ὅμοιος⁩ (homoios, like) and ⁨ὁμοιόω⁩ (homoioō, to liken or compare). The repetition makes likeness the way this hidden governance becomes recognizable.

ALSO GROWS

homoios: like; similar

ὅμοιος

This is the likeness-word behind the first question, “Unto what is it like?”

homoiotēs: likeness; similarity

ὁμοιότης

This noun names the correspondence that makes comparison possible.

homoioō: to make like; compare; resemble

ὁμοιόω

This verb is the word-family behind “shall I resemble it?” and shows Jesus making the likeness visible.

THE PATTERN

God’s governance becomes perceptible through familiar likenesses that uncover its way of unfolding.

I will open my mouth in a likeness, and pour out riddles of old.

Psalm 78:2 · SDVThe parable gives voice to what remains hidden until it is expressed through a likeness.

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables, and he spoke nothing to them without a parable.

Matthew 13:34 · SDVJesus uses parables to make the nature of God’s governance perceptible through familiar images.

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his garden, and it grew into a great tree, and the birds of the heavens pitched their tents in its branches.

Luke 13:19 · SDVThe next verse answers the question with a seed whose small beginning unfolds into sheltering abundance.

THE THREAD

Another parable he laid beside them, saying, The governance of the heavens is like a grain of mustard, which a man took and sowed in his field.

Matthew 13:31 · SDV

Matthew uses the same Greek word ⁨βασιλεία⁩ (basileia, royal rule or governance) and answers with a mustard seed. The image shows God’s governance unfolding from what first appears small into something that shelters life.

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