What Does Luke 22:17 Mean?
And he took hold of a cup, gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves.
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 he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:THE KEY
The cup moves from thanks into distribution: gratitude becomes a shared portion.
THE MEANING
The cup reaches you as something received with thanks, then becomes a portion shared among you. The verse holds receiving and distributing together, so gratitude takes shape in what passes from one hand to another.
THE ROOT
διαμερίσατε
diamerisate
GROWS FROM
μερίζω
merizō
To apportion, divide, or assign into shares.
English “divide” can sound like an ending, but this verb also carries the sense of assigning portions. Here the cup’s division carries one received thing into the hands of many.
ALSO GROWS
meros: A part, share, or portion.
μέρος
The cup is divided into parts that each person can receive.
meris: A share, portion, or allotment.
μερίς
This related word makes the cup’s division a distribution of portions among the group.
εὐχαριστήσας
eucharistēsas
GROWS FROM
χάρις
charis
Favor, freely given kindness.
“gave thanks” in this verse is eucharistēsas. The verb for giving thanks carries the language of favor within it. Thanks recognizes what is received as favor, just before the cup is passed into shared hands.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: To grant freely or bestow as a favor.
χαρίζομαι
The cup’s movement from the one who gives it to the group echoes the root’s sense of freely bestowing.
charisma: A gift or gracious endowment.
χάρισμα
This related word for a gift links thanksgiving with receiving what is given.
THE PATTERN
Provision received as a gift becomes shared life when it is portioned among many.
And when they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing over, and the one who gathered little had no lack. Each one gathered according to his eating.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.For there is one bread, and we, being many, are one body, since we all share in the one bread.THE THREAD
And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments, throwing lots over them to see what each would take.The verb for dividing the cup also appears when the soldiers part Jesus’ garments. One scene distributes a cup among companions; the other parcels his clothing among executioners, and the shared verb makes the contrast in what is divided impossible to miss.
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