What Does Luke 14:29 Mean?
Lest, perhaps, after he has set the foundation and has no strength to finish, all who look on begin to mock him,
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
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,THE KEY
“Finish” points to reaching the work’s intended end: the tower’s danger is the public gap between what is begun and what is completed.
THE MEANING
A beginning does not yet show whether the work reaches its end. While the tower stands unfinished, the gap between intention and completion remains visible, and others can make sport of it. The verse holds that exposure in view now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that laying a foundation alone counts as completion; unfinished work remains visible and open to ridicule.
THE ROOT
ἐκτελέσαι
ek telesai
GROWS FROM
τέλος
telos
End, goal, or intended completion.
“Finish” here carries the sense of bringing a work through to its end, not merely stopping. The unfinished tower is a purpose left short of its intended completion.
ALSO GROWS
teleō: To complete or bring to an end.
τελέω
It names the action the builder cannot carry through in this verse.
tetelestai: It has been completed; “It is finished.”
τετέλεσται
This form from the same word family appears in John 19:30, where completion has been reached.
ἐμπαίζειν
empaizein
GROWS FROM
παίζω
paizō
Play; make sport of.
“mock” in this verse is empaizein. The verb for mocking carries the image of making sport of someone. What the builder cannot complete becomes material for other people’s public amusement.
ALSO GROWS
paizō: To play.
παίζω
This is the verb at the heart of the word for mockery, exposing the playfulness in the observers’ scorn.
empaiktēs: A scoffer; one who mocks.
ἐμπαίκτης
The related noun names the person who turns another’s failure into sport.
THE PATTERN
A work’s beginning becomes visible as its meaning only when it is carried toward completion.
For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?Better is the latter end of a matter than its head; and the long-breathed is better than the high-breathed.Being confident of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
When Jesus had taken the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and handed over his breath.The word translated “finished” here belongs to the same completion family as “finish” in Luke 14:29. The tower remains a beginning without its end; John’s phrase speaks from the point where completion has been reached.
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