What Does Luke 20:47 Mean?
They who devour the houses of widows, and make long prayers for show. These will receive greater judgment.
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
Which devour widows’ houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation.THE KEY
A long prayer can cover the hands consuming a widow’s home, but it cannot keep that harm from judgment.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now wherever devotion becomes a polished face over the taking of someone’s home or security. The harm remains material: a widow’s house is consumed, and the long prayer does not cancel what has been done. The same shall receive greater damnation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a display of devotion makes exploitation unseen or excusable.
THE ROOT
κρίμα
krima
GROWS FROM
κριν- (krin-, from κρίνω)
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
Here κρίμα (krima) gives “damnation” the additional weight of a verdict or judicial decision. It belongs to the same word family as judgment and judge, so the prayer and the consumed household are both within what is weighed.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: judgment, decision
κρίσις
This branch makes the verdict sense in “greater damnation” audible: the harm is subject to judgment.
kritēs: judge
κριτής
This branch names the one who judges, linking the verdict to an active judge.
anakrinō: examine, investigate
ἀνακρίνω
This branch adds the sense of scrutiny: what the prayer appears to say does not hide what the hands have done.
THE PATTERN
When religious display covers the taking of another’s livelihood, the hidden harm remains visible to judgment.
When you spread your palms, I will shut my eyes to you. Even when you multiply your prayers, I will not hear and respond. Your hands are filled with blood.And I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who press the hired worker's wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and against those who turn aside the stranger from his right, and against those who do not stand in awe of me, says the LORD of hosts.Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, stripped away by your fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have gone into the ears of the LORD of hosts.THE THREAD
Do not groan against one another, brethren, lest you be judged. Look, the judge stands before the doors.James uses the same κριν- (krin-) word family in “condemned” and “judge.” The judge at the door opens Luke’s warning further: the prayer and the household consumed are both within judgment.
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