What Does Luke 20:11 Mean?
And again he sent another servant, and they beat him also, and shamed him, and sent him away empty.
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 again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.THE KEY
The servant’s empty return reveals the refusal of those who receive him; it does not erase the sender’s continued act of sending.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a messenger meeting blows, dishonor, and an empty return. The sending continues even as those who receive him refuse what is entrusted to them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a messenger’s rejection proves he has no worth: the dishonor belongs to those who mistreat him, not to the one who sends him.
THE ROOT
ἀπέστειλεν
apesteilen
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω (apo + stellō)
To send away or dispatch; the compound carries the sense of setting someone forth.
The Greek word belongs to the same family as the word for a sent one: the servant carries the sender’s act into the vineyard. His mistreatment therefore reaches beyond the messenger to the one who sends him.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A sent one; a messenger or apostle.
ἀπόστολος
The messenger’s identity grows from the same sending named in the verse.
apostolē: A sending, dispatch, or commission.
ἀποστολή
This branch keeps the sender’s purpose present even when the messenger is rejected.
ἠτίμασαν
ētimasan
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
tim-
Honor, recognized worth, or value; the verb in the verse denies that honor.
“shamed him” in this verse is ētimasan. The phrase describes more than rough treatment: it marks the servant as someone whose worth the tenants refuse to recognize. The Greek word makes that dishonoring explicit.
ALSO GROWS
timē: Honor, value, or worth.
τιμή
This is the value the tenants withhold from the servant.
atimos: Dishonored; treated as having no honor.
ἄτιμος
This related word makes visible the condition imposed on the servant by their treatment.
κενόν
kenon
GROWS FROM
κεν-
ken-
Empty, hollow, or without content.
“empty” in this verse is kenon. The servant is sent back without the vineyard’s fruit. The word describes the result of the tenants’ refusal, not the servant’s worth.
ALSO GROWS
kenoō: To empty or make void.
κενόω
The verb shows the same seed as an act of stripping something of its contents.
kenodoxia: Empty glory; vainglory.
κενοδοξία
This branch joins emptiness to a claim of worth without substance, sharpening the contrast with the servant whose worth is denied.
THE PATTERN
A message can be repeatedly sent and still meet refusal, contempt, or violence from those who receive it.
The LORD has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but you have not heard and responded, nor bent your ear to hear.But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the burning of the LORD's anger rose against his people, until there was no healing.Therefore, look, I send you prophets, and wise ones, and writers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will whip in your gatherings and pursue from city to city.THE THREAD
Therefore, look, I send you prophets, and wise ones, and writers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will whip in your gatherings and pursue from city to city.Matthew uses the same Greek sending word, ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), that appears in Luke: “I send.” The shared root carries the sending forward even as the messengers face contempt and violence.
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