What Does Luke 13:20 Mean?
And again he said, "To what shall I make the governance of God like?"
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 again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?THE KEY
God’s reign becomes visible through resemblance: the question asks for an image that makes its governance recognizable.
THE MEANING
God’s governance comes into view for you through comparison, as something recognizable in the familiar world. The question leaves the image open, letting its nature be seen rather than compressed into a definition.
THE ROOT
βασιλεία
basileia
GROWS FROM
βασιλ-
basil-
Kingly authority, reign, or governance.
βασιλεία (basileia, kingdom or governance) can name the exercise of royal rule, not only a territory. The question invites you to recognize God’s governance through the image that follows.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: King
βασιλεύς
The related word names the one whose authority gives the kingdom its character.
basileuō: To reign or exercise kingship
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the active sense of governance visible within the word family.
ὁμοιώσω
homoiōsō
GROWS FROM
ὁμοιο-
homoio-
Likeness or similarity.
“make like” in this verse is homoiōsō. The verb ὁμοιώσω (homoiōsō, I liken or compare) asks what familiar thing can make the governance of God perceptible. The comparison opens a way of seeing; it does not make the image and the kingdom identical.
ALSO GROWS
hómoios: Like or similar
ὅμοιος
This adjective carries the shared idea of resemblance that makes comparison possible.
homoíōma: Likeness or form
ὁμοίωμα
This related noun names the image or form through which something can be recognized.
THE PATTERN
God’s governance becomes visible through ordinary images that reveal its manner of working.
I will open my mouth in a likeness, and pour out riddles of old.And he said, To what shall we make the governance of God like, or with what parable shall we place it?Another parable he spoke to them. The governance of the heavens is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until all of it had risen.THE THREAD
Another parable he spoke to them. The governance of the heavens is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until all of it had risen.Matthew uses βασιλεία (basileia, kingdom or governance), the same Greek word as Luke. Its image of leaven hidden in meal until the whole is leavened answers the question by showing governance working through the whole.
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