What Does Luke 15:4 Mean?
What man among you, holding a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the one that has lost its way until he finds it?
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
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?THE KEY
The word translated “lost” can also mean “perishing,” so the shepherd’s search is a rescue that continues until the sheep is found.
THE MEANING
When you have lost the way, the shepherd comes after you into the wilderness and keeps seeking until you are found. Your lostness does not put you beyond reach or erase your place among the sheep.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Straying means you are now beyond the shepherd’s reach and no longer worth seeking.
THE ROOT
ἀπολέσῃ
apolēsē
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
To lose, perish, or be destroyed; in this verse, to be lost or to lose the way.
“loses” in this verse is apolēsē. The verse uses two forms of one verb: the conditional “lose” and the description “lost.” The word’s range also holds the sense of perishing, so the shepherd’s search carries the stakes of a life being recovered, not merely property being located.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Loss, ruin, destruction
ἀπώλεια
This noun from the same word family shows the serious edge behind “lost.”
apolōlos: Having been lost or perished
ἀπολωλός
This is the form describing the sheep, holding its lost state together with the possibility of being found.
THE PATTERN
Shepherding seeks the one who has strayed and continues until the lost is restored.
I will seek the one who lost the way, and bring back the driven away, and bind up the broken, and hold up the sick. But the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.I wander like a sheep that loses the way; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commands.I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his living soul for the sheep.THE THREAD
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to deliver that which had lost its way.Luke 19:10 uses the same verb, ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi, “lose” or “perish”), behind “lost” here. Luke 15 shows the shepherd seeking the lost sheep; Luke 19 names seeking and delivering the lost as the Son of Man’s purpose.
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