What Does Luke 21:22 Mean?
For these are days of vengeance, so that all that is written may be filled.
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 these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.THE KEY
The Greek word for “vengeance” grows from dikē, “justice,” so these days mark a reckoning in which written judgment takes effect.
THE MEANING
This verse faces the reader with the hard reality of vengeance: some days are marked by real reckoning, and what is written reaches its appointed measure. The text names that fulfillment without softening its judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that written judgment is only language with no consequence; this verse presents it as something that comes to pass.
THE ROOT
ἐκδίκησις
ekdikēsis
GROWS FROM
δίκη
dikē
Justice, right, what is due.
“Vengeance” carries the dikē root of justice: it names a reckoning in which a claim is answered. Here, “days” makes that reckoning a season when the written record becomes event.
ALSO GROWS
ekdikeō: avenge, vindicate, do justice
ἐκδικέω
This verb from the same word family describes the carrying out of the claim named by vengeance.
dikaiosynē: alignment
δικαιοσύνη
The same dik- family carries the idea of alignment with what is right, showing the root beneath vengeance is a reckoning measured against right.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places vengeance within God’s reckoning and names its arrival as an appointed event.
To me belongs vengeance, and repayment. At its appointed time their foot slips, for the day of their falling is near, and what is readied comes hurrying upon them.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.For we know the one who said, Mine is the vengeance; I will give back, says the LORD. And again, the LORD shall judge his people.THE THREAD
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.Luke’s ἐκδίκησις (ekdikēsis, vengeance) and Romans’ ἐκδικεῖτε (ekdikeite, avenge) share the same Greek word family. Romans identifies the reckoning in Luke as belonging to God, while preserving the force of the word.
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