What Does Luke 17:25 Mean?
But first he must suffer many things, and be tested and cast aside by this generation.
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
But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.THE KEY
The Son of Man’s rejection is part of the path before his day, not proof that the path has failed.
THE MEANING
You encounter a fixed order: the Son of Man must undergo many things and be rejected by this generation before his day arrives. The rejection is real, but it does not cancel what the verse says is coming.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that rejection proves the rejected one has failed: here, the Son of Man’s rejection is part of the necessary path before his day.
THE ROOT
ἀποδοκιμασθῆναι
apodokimasthēnai
GROWS FROM
δοκιμ-
dokim-
The root carries the idea of testing or examining for approval; ἀποδοκιμάζω (apodokimazō) means to reject or disapprove.
“be tested and cast aside” in this verse is apodokimasthēnai. “Rejected” carries the force of a verdict: the Son of Man is judged unfit and turned away. This is more than being overlooked; the verse names a judgment that does not determine what comes next.
ALSO GROWS
dokimazō: To test or examine, and to approve what passes.
δοκιμάζω
It reveals the judgment hidden inside “rejected”: someone assesses the Son of Man and refuses him.
adokimos: Not approved; judged unfit.
ἀδόκιμος
This branch makes the verdict plain: rejection treats someone as having failed the test.
παθεῖν
pathein
GROWS FROM
παθ-
path-
To undergo or experience; in painful contexts, to suffer.
“suffer” in this verse is pathein. The verb can describe undergoing an experience, while “many things” makes the suffering concrete. The verse speaks of what the Son of Man passes through before he is rejected.
ALSO GROWS
pathēma: An experience or suffering endured.
πάθημα
It keeps the verse’s suffering grounded in what is actually borne.
sympaschō: To undergo suffering together with another.
συμπάσχω
The shared root can describe suffering as an experience one enters, not merely an idea or label.
THE PATTERN
Scripture holds human rejection together with a place in God’s purpose.
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.He is despised and left off by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And as one hiding the face, we hid our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not reckon him.Have you not read this writing? The stone the builders tested and threw aside has become the head of the corner.THE THREAD
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be tested and cast off by the elders, and by the chief priests, and by the writers, and be killed, and after three days stand up again.Mark repeats the same sequence: the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected. It then names death and rising, showing that rejection is a passage within the announced path, not its conclusion.
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