What Does Luke 14:6 Mean?
And they had no strength to answer him back about these things.
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 they could not answer him again to these things.THE KEY
When a rule permits compassion for your own interests but not for another’s need, silence exposes the contradiction.
THE MEANING
Their inability to answer is not neutral: the questions set their own accepted exceptions beside the suffering before them. The rule they defend cannot be applied consistently once the same measure reaches a person in need. This verse speaks wherever a principle sounds right until it costs the one defending it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a rule is righteous simply because it is defended: when applied consistently, its defenders may have no answer.
THE ROOT
ἀποκρίνομαι
apokrinomai
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
Separate, distinguish, decide, judge
“answer” in this verse is apokrinomai. The word for answering belongs to a family built around judging and deciding: a reply puts forward a position that can be examined. Here no position survives the questions without exposing the contradiction in the rule they defend.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment, decision
κρίσις
An answer is a judgment offered in response; the verse shows that judgment faltering under scrutiny.
anakrinō: Examine, question
ἀνακρίνω
This related word makes the link clear: answering and questioning belong to a shared process of weighing a claim.
kritēs: Judge
κριτής
A judge assesses what is put forward; here the question turns that scrutiny back on those defending the rule.
ἴσχυσαν
ischysan
GROWS FROM
ἰσχυ-
ischy-
Be strong, have power, prevail
“had no strength to answer him back” in this verse is ischysan. The verb translated “could” comes from the language of strength and prevailing. Their silence is described as an inability to prevail with a reply, not simply a pause in conversation.
ALSO GROWS
ischys: Strength, power
ἰσχύς
The verse frames their failure to answer in terms of lacking the strength for a reply.
ischyros: Strong, powerful
ἰσχυρός
This branch sharpens the contrast: their position has no force when tested by the question.
THE PATTERN
A contradiction exposed by its own measure leaves the defense without a reply.
And no one was able to answer him a word, and from that day no one dared to ask him any more questions.And they could not seize on his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and held their tongues.They were shattered. They answered no more. They removed their words from themselves.THE THREAD
And no one was able to answer him a word, and from that day no one dared to ask him any more questions.The Greek verb translated “answer” is the same in both verses, from the family of κρίνω (krinō), meaning to judge or decide. Matthew shows the same pressure reaching its endpoint: no one can form a reply to Jesus’ question, and the questioning stops.
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