What Does Luke 18:2 Mean?
Saying, There was in a city a judge who held no awe of God and did not turn toward humankind.
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
Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:THE KEY
The title “judge” sounds like justice, but this man has neither awe above him nor regard for the people before him.
THE MEANING
This verse shows authority stripped of both accountability to God and regard for another person. A title or position cannot make its judgments just when neither awe nor human dignity shapes them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Holding the title of judge does not guarantee justice; authority can keep its name while abandoning its substance.
THE ROOT
κριτής
kritēs
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
To distinguish, separate, or decide; the word-family describes judgment as making a distinction.
“judge” in this verse is kritēs. The word names someone whose work is to distinguish and decide, not merely someone who holds an office. The verse measures that work against what is missing: awe toward God and regard for people.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: To judge, decide, or distinguish.
κρίνω
This verb is the action carried by the judge’s title: making a decision.
krisis: Judgment or a decision.
κρίσις
The decision itself belongs to the same word-family as the person who makes it.
kritikos: Discerning; able to judge.
κριτικός
This branch makes the family’s core sense visible: judgment involves discernment, not just authority.
φοβούμενος
phoboumenos
GROWS FROM
φοβ-
phob-
Fear or awe; φοβέομαι can mean to fear or revere.
“feared” in this verse is phoboumenos. The judge’s lack of fear describes more than an absence of panic: he lives without reverential awe toward God. His authority has no higher weight to answer to.
ALSO GROWS
phobeomai: To fear or revere.
φοβέομαι
This is the verb behind the description of the judge’s stance toward God.
phobos: Fear or awe.
φόβος
The related noun shows the range from alarm to reverence that the context gives this word.
ἐντρεπόμενος
entrepomenos
GROWS FROM
τρεπ-
trep-
Turn; the compound ἐντρέπομαι is used for showing respect or regard, and can also carry the sense of being put to shame.
“turn toward humankind” in this verse is entrepomenos. “Regard” here is respect, not simply noticing that people exist. The judge is described as one who will not turn toward human regard or be restrained by it.
ALSO GROWS
entrepō: To respect, regard, or put to shame.
ἐντρέπω
The compound verb is the word used for the respect this judge refuses to show.
trepō: To turn.
τρέπω
The root’s image of turning helps uncover regard as an orientation toward another person.
entropē: Respect or shame.
ἐντροπή
This related noun connects regard with the social restraint the judge lacks.
THE PATTERN
Authority becomes unjust when it answers neither to God nor to the people affected by its decisions.
Moreover, you shall look out from all the people for men of strength, who stand in awe of God, men of truth, who hate plunder; and set such over them as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.THE THREAD
Do not judge by what the eye sees, but judge the judgment of alignment.The title “judge” in Luke and the command “judge” here belong to the same Greek word-family, κρίνω (krinō), meaning to decide or distinguish. The shared root opens a gap between holding authority and discerning justly.
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