What Does Luke 15:2 Mean?
And the separated ones and the writers murmured, saying, "This man receives those who miss the mark, and eats with 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 the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.THE KEY
The charge meant to discredit him reveals the center of his way: he receives the missing and makes room for them at the table.
THE MEANING
The person named by what is missing is still received into nearness; the table does not wait for a repaired identity. Shared food makes that welcome visible, while the complaint shows how unsettling such nearness can be.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that people marked by their missing must remain outside until they qualify for welcome.
THE ROOT
προσδέχεται
prosdechetai
GROWS FROM
δεχ-/δεκ- (dech-/dek-)
take in, receive, accept or welcome
“receiveth” in this verse is prosdechetai. The verb means receives or welcomes: this is more than allowing the missing to remain nearby. Its word family holds receiving and accepting together, and the shared meal makes that welcome tangible.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: receive, accept, welcome
δέχομαι
This related verb shows that receiving carries a sense of welcome, not mere proximity.
dektos: accepted, welcome
δεκτός
The shared root connects being received with being welcome at the table.
ἁμαρτωλούς
hamartōlous
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
miss, err, fall short
“those who miss the mark” in this verse is hamartōlous. The word belongs to a family organized around missing and error, not a fixed identity beyond reach. Here, those named by their missing are the very people received into company and shared food.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: miss, err
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb shows the root as an action or condition of missing.
hamartia: missing, error
ἁμαρτία
This related noun keeps the sense of missing present beneath the label applied to the people at the table.
διεγόγγυζον
diegongyzon
GROWS FROM
γογγυζ-
gongyz-
murmur, grumble
“murmured” in this verse is diegongyzon. The same verb returns in Luke 19:7 when the crowd grumbles at Jesus entering the home of a man called a sinner. The repeated word makes this complaint an echoing response to welcome across a boundary.
ALSO GROWS
gongyzō: murmur, grumble
γογγύζω
This related verb carries the same sound and sense of resentful complaint.
gongysmos: murmuring, complaint
γογγυσμός
The noun form shows the same root naming the murmuring itself.
THE PATTERN
Welcome becomes visible at the shared table, where the boundary around who belongs is exposed.
You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.And when they perceived it, all of them grumbled, saying, "He has gone in to lodge with a man who misses the mark."Saying, You went in to men uncircumcised, and ate with them.THE THREAD
And when they perceived it, all of them grumbled, saying, "He has gone in to lodge with a man who misses the mark."Luke repeats the same Greek verb διεγόγγυζον (diegongyzon, “they murmured”) when the crowd sees Jesus enter a sinner’s home. The table is the recurring flashpoint: welcome becomes visible enough to provoke the same complaint.
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