What Does Luke 17:35 Mean?
Two women will be grinding together; the one will be taken along, and the other will be let go.
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
Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.THE KEY
The Greek frames the split as movement: one is received alongside, while the other is let go.
THE MEANING
Two women share one act, yet the sentence holds two separate outcomes: one is taken, the other remains. The verse speaks into the reader’s present closeness: sharing a place or routine does not make two paths identical when a dividing moment arrives. The destination and cause remain unstated, while the distinction is clear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sharing a place or routine guarantees sharing the same outcome.
THE ROOT
παραλημφθήσεται
paralēmphthēsetai
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
to take or receive
“taken along” in this verse is paralēmphthēsetai. The form in the verse comes from παραλαμβάνω, where para adds the sense of beside or alongside to receiving. The same verb can describe receiving someone to oneself, so “taken” carries a shade of being received alongside, while the verse leaves the destination unstated.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: take, receive
λαμβάνω
The simple verb beneath the compound keeps “taken” tied to receiving.
epilambanomai: take hold of, seize
ἐπιλαμβάνομαι
This related compound shows the same root in the more concrete action of taking hold.
ἀφεθήσεται
aphethēsetai
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
to send away, leave, or let go
“other let go” in this verse is aphethēsetai. The word translated “left” is a passive form of ἀφίημι, a word family that can mean leaving, sending away, or releasing. The family also names release and remission, giving “left” an echo of letting go while the verse leaves the woman’s destination unstated.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: release, remission
ἄφεσις
This related noun uses the same word family for release and remission, linking “left” with the language of letting go.
aphienai: to let go, leave, permit
ἀφιέναι
This infinitive makes visible the broader action behind the verse’s passive form: letting go or leaving.
THE PATTERN
A shared setting does not guarantee a shared outcome when a dividing moment arrives.
I say to you, in that night there will be two men in one bed; the one will be taken along, and the other will be let go.Then two are in the field; one is taken along, and one is let go.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.THE THREAD
And if I go and make ready a place for you, I come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, you also may be.“Receive” here is the same παραλαμβάνω verb behind “taken” in Luke 17:35. Jesus uses that word for receiving people to himself, opening a relational shade in Luke’s line while its destination remains unstated.
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