What Does Luke 20:38 Mean?
For he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.
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
For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.THE KEY
God’s relationship, not the body’s visible end, defines who is living to him.
THE MEANING
Your visible life does not mark the limit of your life before God. The verse says that all live unto him: every life is present to God, even where death appears to end the story.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that death makes a person disappear from God’s relationship.
THE ROOT
ζώντων
zōntōn
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
to live, to be alive
“living / live” in this verse is zōntōn. The Greek repeats one word family: God is called the God of the ζώντων (zōntōn, “living ones”), because all ζῶσιν (zōsin, “live”) unto him. English makes “living” and “live” look like separate ideas, while the Greek ties them together as one continuing life in relation to God.
ALSO GROWS
zōn: living; one who lives
ζῶν
This is the participle behind “the living,” naming people by the life God sees in them.
zōē: life
ζωή
This related noun names life itself, carrying the same root beyond the description of someone as living.
THE PATTERN
God’s relationship names life as present even where death appears to end it.
Moreover he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was in awe to look upon God.Jesus said to her, I am the rising, and the life. Whoever leans their weight into me, even if they die, will live.For whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.THE THREAD
Jesus said to her, I am the rising, and the life. Whoever leans their weight into me, even if they die, will live.Luke’s ζῶσιν (zōsin, “they live”) and John’s ζήσεται (zēsetai, “he will live”) share the root ζάω (zaō, “to live”). John also uses ζωή (zōē, “life”), showing the same word family hold life across the apparent boundary of death.
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