What Does Luke 15:3 Mean?

So he spoke this parable to them, saying,

Luke 15:3 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

THE KEY

A parable sets an image beside you, letting what you can see reveal what is otherwise hidden.

THE MEANING

This saying places an image beside you so a hidden truth can become visible through comparison. The parable that follows is a lens for seeing what is happening within you now.

THE ROOT

παραβολή

parabolē

GROWS FROM

⁨βαλ-⁩ (from ⁨βάλλω⁩)

To throw or cast; with ⁨παρά⁩, to place alongside.

“Parable” names more than a kind of story: its Greek word carries the image of placing one thing beside another. The comparison lets an ordinary image disclose a truth that direct explanation may leave unseen.

ALSO GROWS

ballō: To throw or cast.

βάλλω

This is the core action inside the word: the parable casts an image into view.

paraballō: To place beside; to compare.

παραβάλλω

This compound makes the parable’s movement plain: one thing is set alongside another so their likeness can be perceived.

THE PATTERN

Truth becomes perceptible when a visible image is placed beside what is hidden.

I will open my mouth in a likeness, and pour out riddles of old.

Psalm 78:2 · SDVThe parable brings hidden sayings into view through an image.

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables, and he spoke nothing to them without a parable.

Matthew 13:34 · SDVJesus uses parables to set images beside truths for the hearers to perceive.

And with many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they could hear it.

Mark 4:33 · SDVThe parables place truth in images that can be received and understood.

THE THREAD

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables, and he spoke nothing to them without a parable.

Matthew 13:34 · SDV

Matthew uses the same Greek word, ⁨παραβολή⁩ (parabolē), translated “parables.” Luke introduces one image placed beside the hearer; Matthew shows how this form of speech makes truth visible through comparison.

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