What Does Luke 20:15 Mean?

So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the lord of the vineyard do to them?

Luke 20:15 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?

THE KEY

The tenants’ violence starts with expulsion: before killing the heir, they throw him outside the place he belongs.

THE MEANING

The verse shows stewardship turning into possession: the tenants drive the heir outside the vineyard and kill him. Its question remains alive wherever control treats the rightful heir as disposable: what follows when the owner answers that rejection?

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that excluding the rightful heir secures ownership. The expulsion and killing expose the tenants’ claim as seizure, not stewardship.

THE ROOT

ἐκβαλόντες

ekbalontes

GROWS FROM

⁨βαλλ-⁩ (ball-, the stem of ⁨βάλλω⁩)

To throw or cast; with ⁨ἐκ⁩ (ek), meaning “out of,” ⁨ἐκβάλλω⁩ means “throw out.”

“threw him out” in this verse is ekbalontes. The verb gives the expulsion a forceful direction: the heir is thrown beyond the vineyard’s boundary before he is killed. Prefixes change the direction of the shared throw-stem, into, out, or away, while keeping the act of removal visible.

ALSO GROWS

ballō: Throw, cast

βάλλω

This is the basic action carried by the verb in the verse: the heir is forcibly thrown out, not simply absent.

emballō: Throw in, put into

ἐμβάλλω

The prefix changes the direction to inward; here, ⁨ἐκ⁩ (ek) directs the action out of the vineyard.

apoballō: Throw away, cast off

ἀποβάλλω

This related form makes the treatment of the heir as something to discard especially clear.

THE PATTERN

Rejecting the rightful one does not erase his place; it exposes the conflict over who has authority.

The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.

Psalm 118:22 · SDVThe builders’ rejection does not remove the stone from its central place; it becomes the image of that place.

So Jesus also, that he might set the people apart through his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

Hebrews 13:12 · SDVJesus suffers outside the boundary, echoing the heir’s expulsion from the vineyard.

So honor is yours, you who lean your full weight upon him; but for those who will not yield, the stone the builders tested and set aside has become the head of the corner,

1 Peter 2:7 · SDVThe rejected one remains the cornerstone, so rejection cannot determine his place.

THE THREAD

And he looked directly at them, and said, Then what is this that is written, The stone that the builders tested and set aside, this same one has become the head of the corner?

Luke 20:17 · SDV

Jesus immediately interprets the killing through the builders’ rejected stone. The one thrown out is not erased from the structure; the next image makes his central place the point.

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