What Does Luke 17:5 Mean?
And the sent ones said to the Lord, Add to our trust.
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 the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.THE KEY
They ask for trust to be added to them, and the answer that follows shows that even mustard-seed trust can move what seems immovable.
THE MEANING
This verse gives your felt need an honest sentence: trust can seem too small. The request brings that need into the open before the Lord instead of pretending confidence is already abundant. The answer that follows shows that even mustard-seed trust still has movement in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that trust must feel abundant before it can be real or effective.
THE ROOT
πίστιν
pistin
GROWS FROM
πιστ- (pist-), related to πείθω (peithō)
Trust, confidence, and being persuaded; πείθω (peithō) means persuade or trust.
Here faith is trust: reliance that can be strengthened and lived, not a store of certainty that must first be accumulated. The next verse uses the same word for trust as small as a mustard seed, loosening the idea that trust matters only once it feels large.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: Trust, believe, or rely on.
πιστεύω
The related verb shows pistis as a living act of trust, not merely an amount someone possesses.
pistos: Firm, steady, trustworthy.
πιστός
This branch shows the quality of trust as steadiness and reliability, not just certainty.
peithō: Persuade, be persuaded, trust.
πείθω
Its relation to pistis ties trust to being persuaded or brought into confidence.
πρόσθες
prosthes
GROWS FROM
τίθημι (tithēmi), with πρός (pros)
τίθημι means put or place; πρός means to or toward, so προστίθημι means add or put to.
“Add to” in this verse is prosthes. The wording pictures trust as something to be put to the apostles, framing their request as addition. The answer that follows shifts attention to seed-sized trust and what it can do.
ALSO GROWS
tithēmi: Put, place, or lay.
τίθημι
This is the verb at the heart of the request’s image of something being placed or added.
prostithēmi: Add, put to, or increase.
προστίθημι
This is the form behind “increase,” making the request’s added-to-us sense visible.
THE PATTERN
Trust can be active while small or mingled with uncertainty.
Behold, his living soul is swollen, and it is not straight within him, but the aligned one shall live by the lean of his full weight.At once the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I lean my weight on you. Help where I cannot lean.And the Lord said, If you had leaned your full weight on me, even as much as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and be planted in the sea, and it would hear and respond to you.THE THREAD
And the Lord said, If you had leaned your full weight on me, even as much as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and be planted in the sea, and it would hear and respond to you.Jesus answers the request using the same Greek word, πίστις (pistis), for faith or trust. The image of a mustard seed opens the request further: trust need not first feel large to act.
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