What Does Luke 20:7 Mean?
And they answered that they could not perceive where it came from.
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 answered, that they could not tell whence it was.THE KEY
When naming a source would force a costly position, claimed ignorance can become a shield.
THE MEANING
You can leave a source unnamed when naming it would commit you to a position. The verse shows how “I do not know” can be either an honest limit or a shield against the consequences of knowing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that claiming ignorance is always a neutral absence of knowledge.
THE ROOT
οἶδα
oida
GROWS FROM
εἴδω
eídō
To see; from seeing, to know or perceive.
“could not perceive” in this verse is oida. Under “tell” is οἶδα (oida), a verb of knowing related to εἴδω (eídō), “to see”; Greek holds knowing and seeing close. The answer touches whether the source can be perceived and named, not merely whether it can be put into words.
ALSO GROWS
eîdon: I saw; a form of the verb meaning to see.
εἶδον
It makes visible the link between perception and the knowledge at issue in this answer.
eîdos: Form, appearance.
εἶδος
It carries the same seeing-root into what can be perceived or recognized.
THE PATTERN
Pressure can turn recognition into silence or reshape an account so its source stays obscured.
And I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me, and I sent it into the fire, and this calf came out.The trembling of man sets a snare, but the one who leans his full weight on the LORD is set on high.Even so, many among the rulers also leaned their weight on him, but because of the separated ones they did not confess him, lest they be thrown out of the gathering.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness about myself, my witness is true, for I have seen where I came from and where I go; but you have not seen where I come from or where I go.Both passages pair οἶδα (oida, “know”) with πόθεν (pothen, “from where”). Here the source is left unnamed; in John, Jesus says, “I know whence I came,” making awareness of one’s source the point of contrast.
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