What Does Luke 22:31 Mean?
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, look, the Adversary has asked for you, to sift you as wheat.
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 the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:THE KEY
The Greek “you” is plural, so while Jesus names Simon, the Adversary’s demand reaches for the whole company.
THE MEANING
The verse lets the reader see how pressure can name one person while reaching for the circle around them. The Adversary’s demand is to shake that circle through a sieve, separating its members as wheat is sifted. It names an intended rupture; it does not yet declare its outcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A threat of sifting does not prove that separation has already won.
THE ROOT
σινιάσαι
siniasai
GROWS FROM
σινιαζ- (siniaz-), from σινιάζω (siniazō)
To shake grain through a sieve; to sift.
“sift” in this verse is siniasai. The image is physical: grain is shaken through a sieve so its contents are separated. The verse presents the Adversary’s aim as separation through pressure, not as a vague test.
ALSO GROWS
sinion: A sieve used to separate grain.
σινίον
The implement makes the verse’s image concrete: the intended shaking passes through a tool made to separate.
siniazō: To sift or shake through a sieve.
σινιάζω
This is the verb behind “sift”; it holds the shaking and separation together in one action.
ἐξῃτήσατο
exēitēsato
GROWS FROM
αἰτε- (aite-), in αἰτέω (aiteō)
To ask or request.
“asked for” in this verse is exēitēsato. The verb frames the Adversary as asking for the disciples, rather than describing only an inward wish. The following phrase names what is being sought: they are wanted for sifting.
ALSO GROWS
aiteō: To ask or request something.
αἰτέω
This base verb shows the asking contained in the more forceful compound used here.
aitēma: A request or something asked for.
αἴτημα
The related noun gives the request a concrete shape: the group is the object being asked for.
שָׂטָן
śāṭān
GROWS FROM
שׂטן
śṭn
To oppose or act as an adversary.
“Satan” in this verse is śāṭān. The name carries the nature of opposition: the Adversary is identified by the role of standing against. Here that opposition takes the form of a demand to shake the group apart.
ALSO GROWS
śāṭān: An adversary or opponent.
שָׂטָן
The noun names the opposing role enacted through the demand to sift.
śāṭan: To oppose or accuse.
שָׂטַן
The verb shows opposition as an action, which the verse makes visible in the attempt to separate the disciples.
THE PATTERN
Sifting subjects a gathered whole to pressure that separates its contents.
For look, I command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations, as is shaken in a sieve, and not one pebble shall fall to the earth.Whose winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean his threshing floor, and gather the wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn up with fire that cannot be put out.THE THREAD
But I have begged for you, that your trust may not run out. And when you have turned back, steady your brothers.The next line shifts from the Adversary’s plural claim on the group to Jesus’ singular prayer for Peter. The sifting is real, but the demand itself does not settle whether Peter’s trust will fail.
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