What Does Luke 20:21 Mean?
And they asked him, saying, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach straight, and you do not lift the face of anyone, but you teach the way of God in truth.
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 they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly:THE KEY
The phrase “acceptest thou the person” pictures truth refusing to receive anyone’s face, so no one’s status can bend God’s way.
THE MEANING
Truthful teaching stays the same whatever face, rank, or leverage stands before it; God’s way is a path, not an answer adjusted to please the powerful. The verse also shows how accurate praise can serve a false aim: flattery can become cover for a baited question.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that truth must change its answer to accommodate powerful people, or that accurate praise proves a speaker’s sincerity.
THE ROOT
λαμβάνεις πρόσωπον
lambaneis prosōpon
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω (lambanō, take or receive) + πρόσωπον (prosōpon, face)
Literally, “to receive a face”; idiomatically, to favor someone based on outward standing.
“lift the face” in this verse is lambaneis prosōpon. The image is more than neutrality: it is refusing to receive an outward face as a credential. Status cannot enter as evidence and alter the teaching.
ALSO GROWS
prosōpolēmptēs: A respecter or receiver of persons
προσωπολήμπτης
Acts 10:34 uses this compound to express the same face-receiving idea.
prosōpolēmpsia: Partiality, favoritism
προσωπολημψία
James 2:1 names the practice as something that has no place alongside trust.
ὁδόν
hodon
GROWS FROM
ὁδός
hodos
A road, way, or path that can be traveled.
The way of God is not a detached set of claims; it is a direction one can walk. The speakers say Jesus teaches it by staying with that path.
ALSO GROWS
hodēgeō: To guide or lead
ὁδηγέω
The word family keeps guidance connected to a way someone travels.
hodoiporeō: To travel or journey
ὁδοιπορέω
This branch makes the way concrete: it is traversed, not merely discussed.
ἐπ
ep’ alētheias
GROWS FROM
ἀλήθεια
alētheia
Truth, what is true or real.
The phrase says Jesus teaches God’s way “in truth”: truth is the ground the teaching stands on, not a flourish added to it. The speakers’ words can describe that truth accurately even while serving a deceptive aim.
ALSO GROWS
alēthēs: True, genuine
ἀληθής
This related word describes what corresponds to truth rather than appearance.
alētheuō: To speak the truth
ἀληθεύω
The branch ties truth to what is said, making the contrast between accurate words and deceptive intent visible.
THE PATTERN
Truthful judgment does not bend to a person’s outward standing; it gives the same hearing to the small and the great.
You shall not recognize faces in judgment; hear and respond to the small as well as the great; do not shrink from the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the word that is too hard for you, draw it near to me, and I will hear and respond to it.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.My brothers, do not hold the trust of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Lord of weight, by receiving faces.THE THREAD
Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face.Luke’s phrase is literally “receive a face”; Acts compresses the same Greek idea into “no respecter of persons” (prosōpolēmptēs). The connection makes explicit that the impartiality named in Jesus’ teaching belongs to God’s own way.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us