What Does Luke 22:40 Mean?
And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that you do not enter the test.
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 when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.THE KEY
The verb makes the danger a threshold: the trial may be near without yet being a place you have entered.
THE MEANING
Prayer meets the threshold where pressure may become involvement. The testing is real, but being near it and entering it are not the same.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that temptation matters only once a wrong act is complete; the verse names entering the testing as an earlier threshold.
THE ROOT
εἰσελθεῖν
eiselthein
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι (erchomai), joined with εἰς (eis)
ἔρχομαι (erchomai) means to come or go; εἰς (eis) means into.
“enter” in this verse is eiselthein. The verb frames temptation as a crossing into something, not merely a feeling that appears. The verse distinguishes pressure that is near from a trial one enters.
ALSO GROWS
eiserchomai: Enter or go into.
εἰσέρχομαι
This is the dictionary form behind “enter,” keeping the sense of crossing into a testing.
exerchomai: Go out or come forth.
ἐξέρχομαι
The contrasting compound shows the same movement root can describe leaving as well as entering.
πειρασμόν
peirasmon
GROWS FROM
πειρα-
peira-
The shared stem centers on trying or testing; πειρασμός (peirasmos) can name a trial, testing, or temptation.
“the test” in this verse is peirasmon. English “temptation” can sound like only an inner lure, while πειρασμός (peirasmos) also names a test or trial. The verse speaks of entering that testing, so the pressure is more than a passing urge.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: Test, try, or tempt.
πειράζω
This related verb shows the action of putting someone to a test or drawing them into temptation.
peirasmos: A trial, testing, or temptation.
πειρασμός
This noun names the testing itself, the place or process the verse says not to enter.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom meets a destructive path at its threshold and keeps the way out visible.
Do not bend my heart toward any evil thing, to do wicked deeds with the men who work crookedness; do not let me eat of their sweet things.Do not enter the path of the restless, and do not walk the way of the harmful ones. Let go of it, and leave it; do not cross over it. Turn aside from it, and pass on.No test has seized you except what is common to humankind. God is steady, and he will not let you be tested beyond what you are able to carry, but with the test he will also make the way out, so that you can carry it.THE THREAD
But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.James uses the same Greek family, πειράζω (peirazō, “to test or tempt”), when he says a person “is tempted,” and describes the pull as being drawn away and enticed. Luke names the threshold as entering the testing; James shows how that testing can become compelling.
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