What Does Luke 17:27 Mean?
They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and made them all perish.
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
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.THE KEY
The flood arrives while people are still living ordinary lives, so routine and total destruction meet at one boundary.
THE MEANING
The verse holds daily rhythms, eating, drinking, marrying, beside total destruction. Ordinary activity continues until Noah enters the ark; then the flood comes and destroys them all. The movement is abrupt: the text gives no gradual transition from routine to catastrophe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that an uninterrupted routine proves the world around you is secure.
THE ROOT
ἀπώλεσεν
apōlesen
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
To lose, ruin, or destroy; to bring to perishing.
“made them all perish” in this verse is apōlesen. This Greek word family can name both losing and destroying: here, loss reaches the force of ruin. “Destroyed” holds the full weight of the verse, while the same root elsewhere names what is lost.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Loss, ruin, destruction.
ἀπώλεια
This noun carries the same word family from the act of destruction to the condition of loss.
apolōlōs: Having perished or been lost.
ἀπολωλώς
This form names the state that follows the verb’s destructive action.
ἐγαμίζοντο
egamizonto
GROWS FROM
γαμ-
gam-
Marriage; the act of marrying or giving in marriage.
The Greek places ἐγάμουν (egamoun, “they were marrying”) beside ἐγαμίζοντο (egamizonto, “they were being given in marriage”); both carry the γαμ- root. Their repetition makes marriage part of the uninterrupted ordinary life that continues up to the flood.
ALSO GROWS
gamos: Marriage or wedding.
γάμος
This noun shares the γαμ- root and names the social bond present in the verse.
gameō: To marry.
γαμέω
This verb shares the root behind the verse’s paired forms of marrying.
נֹחַ
Noaḥ
GROWS FROM
נוח
n-w-ḥ
To rest, settle, or come to rest.
“Noe” in this verse is Noaḥ. The Hebrew name נֹחַ (Noaḥ, Noah) is commonly associated with נוח (nûaḥ, “to rest” or “settle”); Genesis 5:29 also echoes the name with נָחַם (nāḥam, “to comfort”). Here the name marks the hinge: Noah enters the ark before the flood comes.
ALSO GROWS
menūḥāh: Rest or a resting place.
מְנוּחָה
This noun comes from the same Hebrew root and carries its sense of rest.
mānōaḥ: A place of rest or repose.
מָנוֹחַ
This word shares the root and gives rest the sense of a place where one can settle.
THE PATTERN
A sudden threshold can arrive while ordinary life continues.
And every standing thing that was upon the face of the ground was wiped out, from humankind to cattle, to the creeping thing, and to the birds of the heavens, and they were wiped from the earth. Only Noah, and those with him in the ark, were left.and they did not know until the flood came and lifted them all away, so is the presence of the Son of Man.When they say, "Wholeness and firm footing," then sudden ruin stands over them, like labor pains upon a woman carrying a child in her womb, and they will not escape.THE THREAD
Whoever finds his living soul will lose it, and whoever loses his living soul for my sake will find it.Luke’s ἀπώλεσεν (apōlesen, “destroyed”) and Matthew’s ἀπολέσει / ἀπολέσας (apolesei / apolesas, “lose” / “loseth”) belong to the same Greek verb family, ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi). That shared root joins destruction and loss in the language while the verses hold their distinct scenes.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us