What Does Luke 19:18 Mean?
And the second came, saying, "Lord, your mina has produced five minas."
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 second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.THE KEY
The servant says the entrusted mina itself “made” five more.
THE MEANING
The entrusted portion is not inert: in the servant’s account, it produces beyond its original measure. Even as the increase is reported, the servant calls the original “thy pound,” keeping its source in view.
THE ROOT
ἐποίησεν
epoiēsen
GROWS FROM
ποιέω
poieō
To make or do.
“hath gained” in this verse is epoiēsen. The Greek says the mina “made” five minas; the thing entrusted is the grammatical maker of the increase. The wording lets the increase appear as an outcome of what was placed in the servant’s hands, rather than as a separate possession with no connection to its source.
ALSO GROWS
poiēma: A thing made; workmanship.
ποίημα
This branch makes the family’s language of making concrete: an outcome can be recognized by what has been made.
poiētēs: A maker or doer.
ποιητής
The related word names one who acts or makes, echoing the verse’s emphasis on productive action.
THE PATTERN
What is planted or entrusted can become fruitful beyond its first measure.
And God said, "Let the earth sprout green growth, the seed-bearing plant, and the fruit tree making fruit after its kind, whose seed is in it, upon the earth." And it was so.And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who remains in me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.THE THREAD
I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who remains in me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.The Greek uses the same verb family for the mina that “made” five more and the branch that “bringeth forth” fruit. Both verses describe increase as something made through connection to a source.
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