What Does Luke 15:31 Mean?
And he said to him, "Child, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
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 he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.THE KEY
The Greek joins “ever” and “all” through one word-family: lasting presence with the father and the fullness of what is his belong together.
THE MEANING
You are with the father, and what belongs to him is not held back from you. Your place beside him and the fullness of what is his are part of the same assurance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that someone else’s welcome makes you less wanted or takes away your share; another person’s restoration and your belonging can both be whole.
THE ROOT
πάντοτε
pantote
GROWS FROM
πᾶς
pas
All, every, the whole; its παντ- stem appears in words for “always” and “all things.”
“always” in this verse is pantote. “Ever” (πάντοτε, pantote) and “all” (πάντα, panta) carry the same Greek word-family. English makes one sound temporal and the other possessive; Greek binds continual presence and complete belonging together.
ALSO GROWS
pantote: Always, at every time
πάντοτε
This is the word translated “ever”: the child’s presence with the father spans every time.
panta: All things, everything
πάντα
This is the word behind “all that I have,” linking the father’s complete provision to that continual presence.
τέκνον
teknon
GROWS FROM
τίκτω
tikto
To bear, bring forth.
“Son” is τέκνον (teknon), meaning child or offspring, related to τίκτω (tikto), to bring forth. The address places the hearer inside a relation of belonging before the sentence names what is theirs.
ALSO GROWS
tikto: To bear, bring forth
τίκτω
The word for child carries the sense of being brought forth into relationship.
tokos: Birth, offspring
τόκος
This related word keeps the root’s language of birth and kinship close to the father’s assurance of belonging.
THE PATTERN
Belonging to God joins presence and inheritance as shared realities, not portions competing with one another.
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and co-heirs with the Anointed One; if indeed we suffer together with him, so that we may also be clothed in weight with him.All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine; and I am clothed in weight in them.THE THREAD
All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine; and I am clothed in weight in them.The Greek “all” in John 17:10 belongs to the same πᾶς (pas, all) word-family as “all that I have” here. In both verses, that word-family makes belonging shared and complete.
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