What Does Luke 15:1 Mean?
Then all the tax collectors and those who miss the mark drew near to him to hear 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
Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.THE KEY
Those called sinners are already moving toward Jesus; their first defining act here is drawing near to hear.
THE MEANING
People carrying the labels “publicans” and “sinners” draw near to Jesus because they want to hear him. Their missing does not cancel their movement toward the voice; nearness and listening are already present together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that you must first become acceptable before you can approach Jesus dissolves here: the people named as sinners are the ones drawing near.
THE ROOT
ἤγγισαν
ēngisan
GROWS FROM
ἐγγ-
egg-
Near; close at hand.
“drew near” in this verse is ēngisan. The Greek word family keeps nearness inside the action itself. These people do not merely happen to be present; they move close to Jesus as the opening posture of listening.
ALSO GROWS
engys: near; close at hand
ἐγγύς
The related word carries the shared idea of nearness, the seed within the act of approaching.
engizō: draw near; approach
ἐγγίζω
This is the verb used here: nearness is something the publicans and sinners actively move into.
ἁμαρτωλοί
hamartōloi
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
Missing; going astray.
“those who miss the mark” in this verse is hamartōloi. The word translated “sinners” belongs to a family that speaks of missing. Luke places that word beside a verb of approach: missing does not erase the capacity to come close and hear.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: miss; go astray
ἁμαρτάνω
The related verb presents missing as an action or condition, not as a barrier that prevents approach.
hamartia: missing; missing the mark
ἁμαρτία
This related noun carries the same seed of missing, while the verse shows those marked by it drawing near.
THE PATTERN
Drawing near opens an encounter in which the one approaching can speak, listen, or sit with the voice.
And Abraham drew near and said, Will you also sweep away the aligned with the wicked?And it happened, as the crowd pressed upon him to hear the word of God, that he stood beside the lake of Gennesaret.It came to be that as Jesus reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and those who miss the mark reclined together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.THE THREAD
And Jesus stood, and ordered him to be led to him. And when he drew near, he asked him.Luke 18:40 uses the same Greek verb ἐγγίζω (engizō), meaning “draw near.” There, a blind man comes close to Jesus and is asked what he wants; here, people marked by missing draw near because they want to hear.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us