What Does Luke 18:20 Mean?
You know the instructions. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Give weight to your father and your mother.
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
Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.THE KEY
The final command reveals that knowing what is right includes assigning real worth to the people from whom your life begins.
THE MEANING
The verse places your knowledge alongside concrete boundaries around fidelity, life, property, truth, and the worth of father and mother. Its final command gives honor a positive form: your parents carry value in your relational world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that right conduct is only a matter of avoiding harm: this verse includes recognizing the worth of father and mother among the commands you know.
THE ROOT
τίμα
tíma
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
tim-
Value, price, worth; to honor.
“Give weight to” in this verse is tíma. The Greek word for honor carries the sense of assigning value. The command places the worth of father and mother among the concrete realities this verse says you know.
ALSO GROWS
timē: Value, price, worth, honor.
τιμή
It shows that honor concerns the worth assigned to a person, not only outward courtesy.
timios: Valuable, precious, honored.
τίμιος
This branch makes visible the link between honoring someone and recognizing that person as precious.
οἶδας
oídas
GROWS FROM
εἴδω
eídō
See, perceive; οἶδα carries the sense of having seen into knowing.
“knowest” in this verse is oídas. The opening word frames knowledge as recognition already present. The verse then gives that recognition a concrete scope: fidelity, life, property, truth, and family relationship.
ALSO GROWS
eîdon: I saw; they saw.
εἶδον
Its sense of seeing helps explain the perception carried into οἶδας, “you know.”
eîdos: Form, appearance, that which is seen.
εἶδος
This related word keeps the root’s connection to perception in view as the verse addresses what you already recognize.
THE PATTERN
Biblical honor makes a relationship’s worth visible in how it is treated.
Give weight to your father and your mother, that your days may lengthen upon the ground which the LORD your God gives you.Honor all people. Love the brothers. Stand in awe of God. Honor the king.That all may give weight to the Son, even as they give it to the Father. Whoever does not give it to the Son does not give it to the Father who sent him.THE THREAD
Give weight to your father and your mother, that your days may lengthen upon the ground which the LORD your God gives you.Luke’s Greek τίμα (tíma, “honor, value”) names worth; Exodus’s Hebrew כַּבֵּד (kabbed, “honor”), from כבד (kāḇaḏ, “be weighty”), gives that worth weight. Together, the word pictures open the command as more than courtesy: father and mother carry value and weight.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us