What Does Luke 14:25 Mean?
And great crowds walked with him. And he turned and said to them,
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 there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,THE KEY
The crowd is already moving with Jesus; his turn makes that shared movement a direct encounter.
THE MEANING
You are among many who move with Jesus, yet the verse makes his turn toward the crowd the moment of direct address. What had been shared movement now meets a word spoken to you.
THE ROOT
στρέφω
strephō
GROWS FROM
στρεφ-
streph-
to turn, turn around, or redirect
“turned” in this verse is strephō. The crowd is already traveling with him, but he turns before he speaks, shifting the moment from shared motion to direct address. Greek compounds extend this same turn in different directions: a turn can be toward or back, or away.
ALSO GROWS
epistréphō: turn back, return, or turn toward
ἐπιστρέφω
It shows how the same turning motion can bring someone back or redirect them toward another.
apostréphō: turn away
ἀποστρέφω
It shows the other direction contained in the root: turning can also mean moving away from what is before you.
THE PATTERN
Turning toward someone precedes a word that makes the encounter direct.
When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd following him, I say to you, I have not found such trust, no, not even in Israel.Then Jesus turned and watched them following, and said to them, What do you seek? They said to him, Teacher, where do you stay?But Peter cast them all outside, and set his knees down, and prayed. And turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, stand up. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.THE THREAD
When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd following him, I say to you, I have not found such trust, no, not even in Israel.Luke 7:9 uses the same Greek verb στρέφω (strephō, “turn”) and the same noun ὄχλος (ochlos, “crowd”). Jesus again turns toward people following him and speaks, making the turn a hinge between moving near him and receiving a word addressed to them.
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