What Does Luke 22:46 Mean?
And he said unto them, Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray, lest you 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 said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.THE KEY
A test can become the place you are in before it feels like a choice, which is why the verse pairs rising with prayer.
THE MEANING
In you, pressure can be met before it takes hold: wakefulness and prayer bring attention to the threshold. The warning concerns entering a testing situation unawares, not the mere existence of pressure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that temptation begins only when you consciously choose it; drift and unawareness can also bring you to its threshold.
THE ROOT
πειρασμόν
peirasmon
GROWS FROM
πειράζω
peirazō
To test, try, or put to proof.
“the test” in this verse is peirasmon. The Greek word can mean a test or a temptation: pressure that puts something to proof. “Enter into” makes the warning about crossing into that pressure, not merely noticing that it exists.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: To test, try, or tempt.
πειράζω
This verb shows the testing action within the word family behind “temptation.”
peirasmos: A test, trial, or temptation.
πειρασμός
This noun names the pressure itself, the condition the verse warns against entering.
ἀναστάντες
anastantes
GROWS FROM
ἀνίστημι (anistēmi), from ἵστημι (histēmi)
To stand up or rise; the root carries the sense of standing or setting in place.
“rise” in this verse is anastantes. The verse moves from sleep to a standing posture before prayer. The same word family gives Greek its word for resurrection, connecting rising here with a return to active, responsive life.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: To stand up, rise, or get up.
ἀνίστημι
It names the movement out of sleep that precedes prayer in this verse.
anastasis: Rising; resurrection.
ἀνάστασις
This related form carries the same rising movement into the language of resurrection.
histēmi: To stand or set in place.
ἵστημι
The underlying verb gives “rise” its sense of coming to a standing position.
THE PATTERN
Harmful action is guarded against at its threshold through wakefulness, prayer, and a guarded heart.
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.Keep watch and pray, that you do not enter into testing. The breath indeed is eager, but the flesh is weak.THE THREAD
Stay awake and pray, so that you do not enter into testing. The breath is eager, but the flesh has no strength.Mark repeats πειρασμόν (peirasmon, testing or temptation) with the same verb “enter,” making the threshold explicit. Luke says “rise,” while Mark says “watch”: both join prayer with wakeful attention.
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