What Does Luke 14:17 Mean?
And he sent his servant at supper time to say to those who had been called, Come, for everything is now ready.
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 sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.THE KEY
The invitation arrives when the feast is already ready, so welcome begins with receiving what has been prepared.
THE MEANING
The message reaches you with provision already ready. Your place begins with an invitation into what is prepared, not with proving that you are ready. The call remains simple: “Come.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must make yourself worthy before you can be welcomed.
THE ROOT
ἀπέστειλεν
apesteilen
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω
apostellō
To send forth or dispatch.
This verb describes a dispatch: the invitation reaches the guests through someone sent to carry it. Its word family keeps the messenger tied to the sending and the message entrusted to him.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: Envoy; one who is sent.
ἀπόστολος
The servant’s role is defined by carrying the invitation outward.
apostolē: Sending; commission.
ἀποστολή
The invitation is not detached information; it is carried through an act of sending.
ἕτοιμα
hetoima
GROWS FROM
ἑτοιμ-
hetoim-
Ready; prepared.
The word family holds both the state of being ready and the act of preparing. The guests receive the call at the point when preparation has reached readiness.
ALSO GROWS
hetoimazō: To prepare; make ready.
ἑτοιμάζω
It names the preparing that has brought the feast to its ready state.
hetoimasia: Preparation; readiness.
ἑτοιμασία
It makes visible the preparation contained beneath the simple word “ready.”
κεκλημένοις
keklēmenois
GROWS FROM
καλέω
kaleō
To call; invite.
“those who had been called” in this verse is keklēmenois. The guests are described as those who have already been called. The servant brings that prior invitation into the present moment, and “Come” gives it an open next step.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: Calling; invitation.
κλῆσις
It names the call that makes the guests invited before they arrive.
klētos: Called; invited.
κλητός
It describes someone as already included in the call, rather than self-appointed.
THE PATTERN
The invitation arrives with provision already prepared, making welcome a response to what is given rather than a reward for arriving equipped.
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.Again, he sent out other servants, saying, Tell the ones who have been called. Look, I have prepared my feast; my oxen and my fattened beasts are slaughtered, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.And the Breath and the bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who thirsts come. Let whoever wills take the waters of life as a gift.THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.Luke’s “sent” and John’s “Sent” gloss for Siloam come from the same Greek word family: ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), meaning to send or dispatch. In John, the man washes in the Sent pool and comes seeing; in Luke, a sent servant carries an invitation to a feast already ready.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us