What Does Luke 13:5 Mean?
No, I say to you. But unless you turn, you will all likewise perish.
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
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.THE KEY
The turn Jesus names is the dividing line between a life that keeps its direction and one that ends in loss.
THE MEANING
This warning speaks to you now: another person’s sudden death does not prove that they were uniquely guilty or that you are safe. The needed response is a turn in direction. Without it, you too perish.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that someone else’s catastrophe proves their guilt while your survival proves your innocence.
THE ROOT
μετανοῆτε
metanoēte
GROWS FROM
μετανοέω (meta + noeō)
To turn or change one’s mind and direction.
The Greek verb μετανοέω (metanoeō, to turn or repent) holds a change of perception together with a change of course. Here, the turn is not merely regret about the past; it marks a different direction from the one that ends in perishing.
ALSO GROWS
metanoia: Turning, repentance
μετάνοια
This related noun names the same turning as a state or response, showing that Luke’s verb belongs to a wider word family.
noeō: Perceive, think
νοέω
This element of the compound brings perception into the turn: a changed direction begins with seeing differently.
ἀπολεῖσθε
apoleisthe
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
To perish, be lost, or be ruined.
The verb ἀπολεῖσθε (apoleisthe, you will perish) comes from ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi, perish or lose the way). Its word family lets loss and ruin show through the English word “perish,” naming an ending broader than a single visible catastrophe.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Ruin, destruction
ἀπώλεια
This related noun makes the ruin contained in perishing explicit.
apolōlos: Lost one
ἀπολωλός
This related form describes one who is lost, echoing the word family’s sense of perishing as loss.
THE PATTERN
Turning redirects a life from the way that ends in ruin toward life.
For I do not delight in the death of the one who dies, says the Lord LORD. Therefore turn yourselves, and live.The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some hold slowness; but is slow to heat toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should make room for turning.Turn around, then, and turn back, so that your shortcomings may be wiped away, and the times of breathing again may come from the face of the LORD.THE THREAD
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some hold slowness; but is slow to heat toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should make room for turning.Luke uses μετανοέω (metanoeō, turn or repent); Peter uses its related noun μετάνοια (metanoia, turning or repentance). Peter also uses the word family ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi, perish), placing the same turning and perishing side by side.
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