What Does Luke 20:3 Mean?
And he answered and said to them, I will also ask you one thing, and answer me.
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 he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me:THE KEY
His answer is another question, turning the demand for proof into a test of their own discernment.
THE MEANING
Answerability moves both ways: the one asking is also asked to answer. Your response reveals what you can discern in the matter before you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that someone can demand an answer while remaining beyond scrutiny.
THE ROOT
ἀποκριθείς
apokritheis
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
The word translated “answered” belongs to a word family built on distinguishing or deciding. Here the answer takes the form of a question, sending the work of discernment back to the people who challenged him.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment or decision
κρίσις
An answer involves making a judgment about what is being asked.
anakrinō: Examine, investigate, or question
ἀνακρίνω
This related word shows the same family’s connection between responding and carefully discerning a matter.
THE PATTERN
A question can return judgment to the hearer, making their own discernment visible.
Gird your loins now like a man, for I will ask, and you will answer me.Saying, What do you think of the Anointed One? Whose son is he? They said to him, The son of David.Which of these three seems to you to have become a neighbor to the one who fell among the robbers?THE THREAD
These were of nobler birth than those in Thessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness of heart, and sifted the writings daily, whether these things held so.Luke’s “answered” belongs to the κρίνω (krinō) word family of distinguishing and deciding; Acts uses ἀνακρίνω (anakrinō) for examining the scriptures. Both verses show a response taking shape through discernment.
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