What Does Luke 22:18 Mean?

For I say to you, I will not drink from the fruit of the vine until the governance of God comes.

Luke 22:18 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.

THE KEY

The cup waits for God’s governance to arrive, making the kingdom a coming event.

THE MEANING

Jesus withholds the vine’s fruit until God’s governance comes. The waiting holds the promise of that arrival in the reader’s present: the cup is still ahead.

THE ROOT

βασιλεία

basileia

GROWS FROM

βασιλ-

basil-

Kingly rule, royal authority, governance.

“governance of God” in this verse is basileia. The Greek word points to the exercise of a ruler’s authority, so God’s kingdom carries the sense of God’s governance arriving. Paired with “shall come,” it is pictured as an event still awaited, not merely a place.

ALSO GROWS

basileus: king; ruler

βασιλεύς

The related title names the authority behind the kingdom and keeps its focus on governance.

basileuō: to reign; to rule

βασιλεύω

This verb makes the word family active: the kingdom is rule being exercised, not only territory.

THE PATTERN

God’s promised reign is pictured as arrival into a shared feast.

And in this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines kept on their lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines kept on their lees, well strained.

Isaiah 25:6 · SDVGod’s promised abundance takes the form of a feast with wine shared among all peoples.

When one of those who reclined with him heard these things, he said to him, Flourishing is the one who will eat bread in the governance of God.

Luke 14:15 · SDVThe kingdom of God is pictured as a table where people eat together.

And he says to me, Write, Flourishing are those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb. And he says to me, These are the true words of God.

Revelation 19:9 · SDVThe promised marriage supper pictures the reign’s arrival as a shared celebration.

THE THREAD

And he said to them, Truly, I say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste of death until they have perceived the governance of God come with power.

Mark 9:1 · SDV

Mark uses the same Greek word for God’s kingdom and the same verb of coming, then describes that arrival as “with power.” The shared wording lets Luke’s withheld cup be heard within the same expectation of God’s reign arriving.

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