What Does Luke 14:21 Mean?
And the servant came and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the broad streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the emptied, and the maimed, and the lame, and the blind.
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
So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.THE KEY
A refusal from the expected guests does not close the feast; it turns the house’s welcome toward those whose need is still visible.
THE MEANING
When those expected to come turn away, the welcome moves into the streets and lanes. You are not required to arrive cured or self-sufficient to be brought inside: the poor and physically impaired are summoned as they are. The house fills as those beyond its doors are gathered in.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that visible need or bodily limitation makes you an unsuitable guest is undone: the servant is told to bring these people inside as they are.
THE ROOT
πτωχούς
ptōchous
GROWS FROM
πτώσσω
ptōssō
To crouch, cower, or beg.
“the emptied” in this verse is ptōchous. The word translated “poor” carries an image of crouching, exposed dependence, not merely a low-income category. They are gathered into the house without first being described as healed or self-sufficient; need is still visible when they are welcomed.
ALSO GROWS
ptōcheia: poverty
πτωχεία
This names the condition of the people the servant gathers; the feast receives them while that condition remains.
ptōcheuō: to become poor
πτωχεύω
This verb carries the same word family into a change of condition, echoing how the table’s welcome reaches people in their need.
THE PATTERN
The invitation moves toward people marked by need, giving them a place in the abundance from which status has kept them distant.
And in this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines kept on their lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines kept on their lees, well strained.He raises the bowed from the dust, and lifts the one in want from the ash heap, to seat them among the openhanded, and to make them hold the seat of weight. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he sets the world upon them.Hear, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose the emptied ones of this world, rich in trust, and heirs of the governance that he promised to those who love him?THE THREAD
Hear, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose the emptied ones of this world, rich in trust, and heirs of the governance that he promised to those who love him?The same Greek word translated “poor” appears in both verses. Luke shows the poor being brought into a house; James names them rich in trust and heirs, carrying the same word from visible need into belonging.
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