What Does Luke 18:32 Mean?
For he will be handed over to the nations, and will be played with, and handled with outrage, and spat upon.
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
For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:THE KEY
“Delivered” grows from the Greek word for “give”: the violence begins with a handoff that places one person in another’s power.
THE MEANING
This verse names a brutal sequence of exposure: a person is handed into hostile power, made a target of ridicule, treated with contempt, and spat upon. The actions move from transfer to mockery to bodily humiliation, and the text holds the cruelty plainly in view. You see the Messiah standing inside that exposed place, with dignity attacked in public and in the body.
THE ROOT
παραδοθήσεται
paradothēsetai
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant; in compounds, the prefix shapes how something is given or transferred.
“handed over” in this verse is paradothēsetai. Παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) is formed from δίδωμι (didōmi), “give,” with para- giving it the force of giving over or handing across. The word names a transfer into another’s power; Luke uses this same verb for betrayal, so the handoff carries the treachery of being placed in hostile hands.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: Give, grant, place.
δίδωμι
This is the seed of “hand over”: what is transferred is first given into someone’s keeping.
apodidōmi: Give back, render.
ἀποδίδωμι
The added prefix changes the direction of the giving while the root still carries the idea of transfer.
paradidōmi: Hand over; betray.
παραδίδωμι
The same verb names both the transfer into hostile hands here and betrayal elsewhere in Luke.
ἐμπαιχθήσεται
empaichthēsetai
GROWS FROM
παίζω
paizō
To play or make sport.
“played with” in this verse is empaichthēsetai. Παίζω (paizō) means “play”; ἐμπαίζω (empaizō) means to make sport of someone. English “mocked” can sound like mere words, but the root exposes contempt as turning a person into the object of others’ amusement.
ALSO GROWS
paizō: Play, sport.
παίζω
This is the root’s ordinary sense, the seed beneath the cruelty of making sport of a person.
empaigmos: Mockery, derision.
ἐμπαιγμός
The noun carries the same movement from play into public ridicule.
empaizō: Mock, make sport of.
ἐμπαίζω
This is the verb used in the verse: the person becomes the target of others’ amusement.
ἐμπτυσθήσεται
emptysthēsetai
GROWS FROM
πτύω
ptyō
To spit.
“spat upon” in this verse is emptysthēsetai. The word family keeps the spit itself visible: πτύω (ptyō) is “to spit,” while ἐμπτύω (emptuō) directs the act at someone. The contempt reaches the body; the verse does not turn this humiliation into a figure of speech.
ALSO GROWS
ptyō: Spit.
πτύω
This is the root action beneath the act of spitting on someone.
ptysma: Spittle.
πτύσμα
The related noun names what the act leaves behind, keeping the humiliation physical.
emptuō: Spit upon.
ἐμπτύω
The compound makes the person the target of the act described here.
THE PATTERN
Public humiliation takes hold when power places a person within reach and turns the body or presence into an object of contempt.
All who see me mock me; they open their lips, they shake the head.I have given my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the hair. I have not hidden my face from shame and spitting.They spat on him, took the reed, and struck him on the head.THE THREAD
For the Son of Man goes, as it has been marked out, but woe to that man through whom he is handed over!The Greek verb translated “delivered” here, παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), is translated “betrayed” in Luke 22:22. The same word holds the handoff and the treachery of the hand that makes it together.
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