What Does Luke 14:20 Mean?
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
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 another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.THE KEY
He names a bond of joining as the reason he cannot join the table.
THE MEANING
The line speaks into the present whenever an invitation meets an existing commitment: a real relationship is named as making participation impossible. It does not call the marriage bad; it lets the weight of the speaker’s reason remain visible.
THE ROOT
γαμέω
gaméō
GROWS FROM
γαμ-
to marry, to enter a marriage bond
The word translated “married” belongs to the same word family as γάμος (gámos), meaning marriage or wedding. That shared root places the man’s marriage beside the feast’s invitation, without making the marriage itself the problem.
ALSO GROWS
gámos: marriage, wedding
γάμος
It shares the root in “married” and brings the language of a wedding into view beside the invited feast.
gambrós: bridegroom, son-in-law, or relative by marriage
γαμβρός
It names another relationship formed through marriage, showing how the root extends into the bonds created by joining.
δύναμαι
dýnamai
GROWS FROM
δυνα-
to be able, to have power or capacity
“cannot” in this verse is dýnamai. The speaker presents his absence as inability, not simply as a choice. The word makes the tension precise: an invitation is present, while another claim is described as making a response impossible.
ALSO GROWS
dýnamis: power, ability
δύναμις
It makes the sense of capacity in “cannot” visible: the speaker describes himself as lacking the ability to come.
dynatós: able, capable, powerful
δυνατός
Its sense of capability shows the same word family from the other side of the stated inability.
THE PATTERN
A summons can be refused when a competing claim is treated as decisive.
Because I call out and you refuse; I stretch out my hand, and no one bends an ear.But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his field, another to his trade.Those who fell among the thorns are the ones who hear, and as they go on their way, they are choked by cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to ripeness.THE THREAD
And he sent out his servants to call those who had been called to the wedding, and they would not come.Matthew’s “wedding” is γάμος (gámos), from the same γαμ- word family as Luke’s “married” (γαμέω, gaméō). Luke places marriage beside an invitation to a feast; Matthew’s invitation is itself to a wedding, letting the shared root connect a personal bond with a table people are invited to join.
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