What Does Luke 20:39 Mean?
Then some of the writers answered and said, Teacher, you have spoken finely.
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
Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said.THE KEY
The Greek word translated “well” can name speech as good and fitting, so the scribes’ praise reaches beyond mere correctness.
THE MEANING
A word can arrive with a quality that invites recognition: it is well spoken and fitting to what is true. The scribes make that recognition audible in their reply. Their approval is a clear witness to understanding happening in the present act of hearing.
THE ROOT
καλῶς
kalōs
GROWS FROM
καλ-
good, beautiful, fitting
“finely” in this verse is kalōs. The word translated “well” carries the sense of what is good and fitting, beyond speech that is merely correct. Its root links the scribes’ praise to a quality that can be recognized in both words and actions.
ALSO GROWS
kalos: good, beautiful, admirable
καλός
This related form shows the goodness contained in their description of Jesus’ words.
kallos: beauty
κάλλος
The connection to beauty opens “well said” as speech whose form and substance fit together.
THE PATTERN
Fitting goodness can be recognized in the quality of words and works.
A word spoken upon its wheels is like apples of gold in frames of silver.And all bore witness to him, and wondered at the words of favor that went out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?The officers answered, Never has a man spoken as this man has.THE THREAD
And they were struck out of themselves beyond all overflowing, saying, He has done all things finely. He makes the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak.Luke’s “well said” and Mark’s “done all things well” use the same Greek word, καλῶς (kalōs). The shared word connects fitting goodness in speech with fitting goodness in action.
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