What Does Luke 20:18 Mean?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be shattered, and on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like chaff.
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
Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.THE KEY
The stone has two kinds of impact: you can shatter against it, or be ground when it falls on you.
THE MEANING
In your encounter with the stone, falling against it leaves you broken, while its fall upon you grinds you to scattered fragments. The two clauses name opposite directions of impact, and neither leaves the one who meets it intact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that harm comes only when the stone strikes you: falling upon it is already shattering.
THE ROOT
λίθον
líthon
GROWS FROM
λιθ-
λιθ- (lith-, stone) is the Greek consonant stem behind the word for stone and related verbs for striking with stones.
The noun λίθος (líthos, stone) belongs to the same word family as verbs for stoning someone. Here the stone is both what a person encounters and an active force that falls and crushes.
ALSO GROWS
litházō: to stone someone
λιθάζω
This verb shares the λιθ- stem and makes the stone’s striking force audible in the verse’s image.
lithóō: to stone or pelt with stones
λιθόω
This related verb also grows from λιθ-, showing how the noun for stone can become an action of impact.
συνθλασθήσεται
sunthlasthḗsetai
GROWS FROM
θλα-
θλα- (thla-, crush or bruise) is the Greek stem of a verb for crushing.
“shattered” in this verse is sunthlasthḗsetai. The word translated “broken” comes from συνθλάω (synthláō, crush or shatter), built on θλάω (thláō, crush or bruise). Its force is crushing and shattering, which pairs with the next clause’s image of grinding to powder.
ALSO GROWS
thláō: to crush or bruise
θλάω
This base verb shares the θλα- stem and shows the force carried by “broken.”
synthláō: to crush together, shatter
συνθλάω
This compound is the verb family behind the verse’s word for being broken.
λικμήσει
likmḗsei
GROWS FROM
λικμ-
λικμ- (likm-, winnow or scatter) is the consonant stem associated with winnowing and scattering.
“scatter him like chaff” in this verse is likmḗsei. The verb λικμήσει (likmḗsei, will grind to powder) is related to λικμάω (likmáō, winnow or scatter). Its word family carries both pulverizing and scattering force, so the stone’s impact leaves no whole form behind.
ALSO GROWS
likmáō: to winnow or scatter
λικμάω
This related verb shares the λικμ- stem and reveals the scattering image within the verse’s “grind to powder.”
líkmos: a winnowing fan
λίκμος
This related noun shares the same consonantal family and points to the scattering action associated with the verb.
THE PATTERN
The stone makes encounter consequential: what stumbles against it is broken, and what it strikes is scattered.
And he shall be for a set-apart place; but for a stone of striking and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to those who settle in Jerusalem.Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the breath carried them away, so that no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the likeness became a great mountain and filled all the earth.And a stone to strike against, and a rock that springs the trap, to those who strike against the word and will not yield, and to this they were also set.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?The same Greek noun λίθος (líthos, stone) links the rejected corner stone to the stone that breaks or crushes in verse 18. The image holds together both the stone’s place as the corner’s head and the force of its encounter.
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