What Does Luke 20:5 Mean?
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we say from heaven, he will say, Why then did you not lean your weight on 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
And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?THE KEY
When consequences set the terms of a truth question, reasoning becomes a way to avoid trust.
THE MEANING
Your reasoning can become a ledger of consequences: if this answer is true, what will it demand of me? When the cost of trusting a witness becomes the first measure, calculation can keep you from the truth it claims to examine.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that careful risk calculation is the same as discernment: consequences may explain why an answer is resisted without making the answer false.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστεύσατε
episteusate
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, reliance; placing your weight on someone as firm and trustworthy.
“did you not lean your weight on him” in this verse is episteusate. The Greek word for “believed” carries the sense of trust and reliance, not only mental agreement. The question is whether they will entrust themselves to John’s witness, and they weigh that trust against what it might cost.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, reliance; leaning your full weight on someone.
πίστις
It shows that the belief at stake involves relying on John’s witness.
pistos: Firm, steady, trustworthy.
πιστός
The question presses whether John is trustworthy, while their calculation centers on the consequences of treating him that way.
THE PATTERN
Fear of consequences can turn discernment into a calculation about what is safest to say.
The trembling of man sets a snare, but the one who leans his full weight on the LORD is set on high.His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone would say that he was the Anointed One, he would be put out of the gathering.THE THREAD
And he said, Lord, I lean my full weight upon you. And he bowed down before him.The same Greek verb for belief appears here as in Luke 20:5. In Luke, the question of trust is weighed against its cost; here, the speaker says plainly, “I believe.”
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