What Does Luke 20:24 Mean?
Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and writing are upon it? They answered and said, Caesar's.
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
Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Cæsar’s.THE KEY
A coin identifies its source through the face it shows and the name written over it.
THE MEANING
A thing’s image and inscription make its identity visible before anyone names it. The coin carries Caesar’s marks, and the answer confirms what those marks already disclose. Likeness and written name reveal the nature a thing bears.
THE ROOT
εἰκόνα
eikona
GROWS FROM
εἰκ-
eik-
Likeness or resemblance; what makes something recognizable as like another.
The Greek word is εἰκών (eikōn, image or likeness), from the εἰκ- (eik-) family of likeness and resemblance. The coin is not merely decorated: its visible likeness makes the authority it represents recognizable.
ALSO GROWS
eikazō: To compare or liken.
εἰκάζω
Likeness makes the coin recognizable as representing someone beyond itself.
eikonizō: To represent or portray as an image.
εἰκονίζω
An image gives visible form to the one or thing it represents.
ἐπιγραφήν
epigraphēn
GROWS FROM
γραφ
graph-
Writing or marking with written characters.
ἐπιγραφή (epigraphē, inscription) joins ἐπί (epi, upon) with γράφω (graphō, write): it pictures writing placed upon something. Beside the image, it makes identity both visible and readable; face and name point to the same Caesar.
ALSO GROWS
graphō: To write or inscribe.
γράφω
The inscription is writing placed on the coin, making its association legible.
graphē: Writing or a written text.
γραφή
The written mark on the coin names the authority represented by its image.
THE PATTERN
An image makes the source or nature it reflects recognizable.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.And he said to them, Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.Who is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.THE THREAD
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.Genesis says the human is made in צֶלֶם (tselem, image) of God, while this coin carries Caesar’s image. That echo widens the question from the identity displayed on currency to the likeness a human being carries.
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