What Does Luke 21:15 Mean?
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all those set against you will not be able to speak against or stand against.
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
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.THE KEY
The answer that withstands opposition is given as a pair: a mouth to speak and wisdom to fill it.
THE MEANING
When your words are contested, the capacity to answer and the wisdom within that answer are given together. Opposition may rise, but it cannot overturn what is given.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Your voice is only as strong as your preparation or the strength of the person opposing you.
THE ROOT
ἀντιστῆναι
antistēnai
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand or set in place.
The word for resisting pictures someone trying to stand against what is given. The verse does not say opposition disappears; it says opposition cannot hold its ground against the given mouth and wisdom.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: Rise, stand up.
ἀνίστημι
The same root can describe rising to stand; resistance is also framed through the image of standing.
kathistēmi: Set in place, appoint.
καθίστημι
This branch carries the sense of establishing something in place, illuminating the contrast between opposition and what is given to stand.
δώσω
dōsō
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι (didōmi), δω-/δο- (dō-/do-)
To give, grant, or place into someone’s hands.
“give” in this verse is dōsō. The mouth and wisdom arrive through giving: speech and its substance are received together. The verse locates the answer in what is supplied, not only in the speaker’s own capacity.
ALSO GROWS
dōron: Gift.
δῶρον
The word family makes the given answer legible as a gift placed in the speaker’s hands.
dōrea: Gift, freely given gift.
δωρεά
This branch keeps attention on the source of the capacity to answer: it is granted.
dosis: Giving, gift.
δόσις
The noun preserves the act of giving itself, the movement by which mouth and wisdom are supplied.
THE PATTERN
When speech is contested, the capacity and wisdom to answer are given.
And now go, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.But when they hand you over, do not be pulled apart over how or what you will say, for what you will say will be given to you in that very hour.And they were not strong enough to stand against the wisdom and the breath by which he spoke.THE THREAD
And they were not strong enough to stand against the wisdom and the breath by which he spoke.Acts 6:10 uses the same verb, ἀντιστῆναι (antistēnai), meaning “to stand against,” and says the hearers cannot resist wisdom. The repeated root makes Luke’s promise recognizable: opposition cannot hold its ground against wisdom given for speech.
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