What Does Luke 20:40 Mean?
And after this they no longer dared to ask him any question.
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 after that they durst not ask him any question at all.THE KEY
They do not run out of questions; they lose the nerve to ask Jesus another one.
THE MEANING
This verse names a moment readers recognize: when a question is being used to corner truth, an answer can expose the stance behind it. The challengers no longer dare ask Jesus anything. Their silence shows the question itself has lost its force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every question signals a sincere search for understanding dissolves here: a question can be a challenge, and its asker can fall silent when the answer leaves no way to press it further.
THE ROOT
ἐτόλμων
etolmōn
GROWS FROM
τολμ-
tolm-
dare, venture, be bold
“durst” in this verse is etolmōn. The verb names more than a halt in conversation: the questioners no longer venture to bring Jesus another challenge. The same root can describe courageous approach elsewhere, so the verse exposes whose daring has failed, those who test Jesus cannot continue.
ALSO GROWS
tolmēsas: having dared, having ventured
τολμήσας
In Mark 15:43, Joseph dares to approach Pilate for Jesus’ body; the root’s daring appears as an act of courageous approach.
tolmāi: dares
τολμᾷ
In Romans 5:7, someone dares to die for a good person, showing the same root can name a bold, costly act.
THE PATTERN
A truth that exposes the challenger can leave the challenger without words.
Look, I am light; what shall I return to you? I have set my hand upon my mouth.The straight ones see it and rejoice, and all crookedness shuts its mouth.Now we know that whatever the instruction says, it speaks to those under the instruction, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may come under the verdict of God.THE THREAD
Joseph of Arimathea, a council member of good bearing, who also himself waited for the governance of God, came, and gathered himself and went in to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.Luke uses τολμάω (tolmaō, dare or venture) negatively: no one dares to question Jesus. Mark uses the same root for Joseph, who dares to approach Pilate for Jesus’ body; the daring shifts from interrogation to a costly public association.
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