What Does Luke 20:26 Mean?
And they could not seize on his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and held their tongues.
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 could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace.THE KEY
They cannot seize his words, yet his answer takes hold of the room and leaves it silent.
THE MEANING
A public question can reach for a phrase to use against its speaker and come up empty. The answer remains beyond that grip; astonishment gives way to silence. Here, a spoken response is clear, yet cannot be turned into a charge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that public pressure can force any answer into the questioner’s frame. The words are heard, yet the would-be accusers cannot take hold of them.
THE ROOT
ἐπιλαμβάνομαι
epilambanomai
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
to take or receive; in compounds, to seize or take hold of
“seize on” in this verse is epilambanomai. The verb pictures the attempt to get the words into one’s grasp. Luke 20:20 uses this same verb for the challengers’ aim, so this verse shows that intended seizure failing in public.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: take, receive
λαμβάνω
The base verb gives the grasping image carried into the compound used here.
katalambanō: seize, catch up with, overtake
καταλαμβάνω
This related compound shows how the same word family can describe pursuit and seizure, what the challengers attempt but cannot accomplish.
ἀπόκρισις
apokrisis
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
to distinguish, decide, or judge
The Greek word for an answer belongs to the family of discerning and deciding. In the preceding verse, the reply draws a distinction between what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God; that distinction leaves no usable accusation in their hands.
ALSO GROWS
apokrinomai: answer, reply
ἀποκρίνομαι
This related verb names the act of responding that gives the answer its force in the verse.
krisis: judgment, decision
κρίσις
This branch carries the family’s sense of making a distinction or decision, echoing the distinction in the answer.
THE PATTERN
A challenge loses its power when a fitting answer cannot be resisted or turned into an accusation, and silence follows.
When they had heard these words, they marveled, and let him go, and went their way.And they were not strong enough to stand against the wisdom and the breath by which he spoke.Even a fool, when he settles, is reckoned wise; and the one who shuts his lips is discerning.THE THREAD
And they watched him, and sent out spies who played at being aligned, so that they might seize on his word, and hand him over to the rule and authority of the governor.Luke 20:20 states their aim with the same Greek verb for “take hold” used here. This verse shows that the words they planned to seize remain beyond their grasp.
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