What Does Luke 13:9 Mean?
And if it makes fruit, well; but if not, in the coming time you will cut it down.
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 if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.THE KEY
The time before removal is a real opening for fruit, not a promise that barrenness can continue without end.
THE MEANING
Your present life is held in a real interval: fruit may still come, and removal remains possible. The sentence holds both outcomes together; more time does not guarantee that barrenness continues without consequence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
More time is not an unlimited guarantee: the verse does not promise that a fruitless tree will be left standing indefinitely.
THE ROOT
ποιήσῃ καρπόν
poiēsē karpon
GROWS FROM
ποιέω
poieō
To do, make, or bring about.
“makes fruit” in this verse is poiēsē karpon. The Greek pairs a form of “do” or “make” with “fruit,” where English says “bear fruit.” The verb emphasizes what actually comes forth: the test is produced yield, not simply the tree’s potential.
ALSO GROWS
poiētēs: A doer, one who acts.
ποιητής
This noun belongs to the same do-and-make family; the verse’s fruit is something brought about, not merely claimed.
poiēma: Something made; workmanship.
ποίημα
This names the result of making, echoing the fruit as an actual yield.
καρπόν
karpon
GROWS FROM
καρπός
karpos
Fruit, produce, or yield.
“fruit” in this verse is karpon. The Greek word family names both fruitfulness and its absence, holding yield and barrenness in one vocabulary. Here that contrast leads directly to staying or being cut down.
ALSO GROWS
karpophoreō: To bear fruit; be fruitful.
καρποφορέω
This verb makes the root’s yield explicit, echoing the condition at the center of the verse.
akarpos: Fruitless; unfruitful.
ἄκαρπος
This word names the absence of yield that the verse sets against bearing fruit.
THE PATTERN
Fruit is the visible yield by which living growth is recognized, while fruitlessness carries a consequence.
And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.Every tree that does not make good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.Every branch in me that bears no fruit, he lifts away. And every branch that bears, he cleanses it, that it may bear more fruit.THE THREAD
And already the axe lies at the root of the trees, so every tree that does not make good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.Luke 3:9 uses καρπός (karpos, fruit) and ἐκκόπτω (ekkoptō, cut down), the same Greek words found in Luke 13:9. It makes the consequence explicit: the tree’s missing yield is the reason it is removed.
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