What Does Luke 23:2 Mean?
And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man twisting our nation aside, and forbidding the giving of tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is the Anointed One, a king.
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 they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.THE KEY
The charge turns “the anointed one” into a rival king by framing the nation as a path he is accused of twisting.
THE MEANING
When accusation reaches you, its wording can make a disputed account feel like a proven description. Here, the claims of twisting the nation, forbidding tribute, and claiming kingship form one political portrait, but the verse identifies it as what the accusers are saying.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A charge that invokes public order is not proof that the accused has disturbed it; here these claims remain allegations.
THE ROOT
διαστρέφοντα
diastrephonta
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
Turn or twist.
“twisting ... aside” in this verse is diastrephonta. The Greek verb means to turn aside or distort, and its base means to turn. The charge pictures the nation as a path being twisted; the word’s family also holds turning back and turning away.
ALSO GROWS
epistrephō: Turn back, return.
ἐπιστρέφω
This branch shows that turning can also mean a return to a way, giving the base image more range than distortion alone.
apostrephō: Turn away, turn aside.
ἀποστρέφω
This branch echoes the accusation’s image of a people being turned from their course.
Χριστόν
christon
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
Anoint, apply oil.
Christ comes from the verb for anointing and means the anointed one. Set beside “King,” it shows how the accusation turns his claimed nature into a charge of political rule.
ALSO GROWS
christos: Anointed one.
χριστός
This is the title in the verse, naming the one who is anointed.
chrisma: Anointing.
χρῖσμα
This related noun keeps the title connected to the act of anointing.
βασιλέα
basilea
GROWS FROM
βασιλ-
basil-
Rule or reign as king.
“King” in this verse is basilea. The accusation does not leave the title as a name; it frames it as governance that could compete with Caesar’s. In Greek, kingship remains joined to both reigning and kingdom.
ALSO GROWS
basileuō: Reign, rule as king.
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the action inside kingship explicit.
basileia: Kingdom, reign.
βασιλεία
This noun connects the king’s title to the governance the accusation portrays as a threat.
THE PATTERN
Public charges can recast a person’s words or identity as a threat to power.
And two men, sons of Belial, came in and settled before him, and the men of Belial bore witness against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, Naboth blessed God and the king. Then they brought him out of the city, and stoned him with stones, and he died.Whom Jason has taken in; and all these act against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.He said to them, You brought this man to me as one who turns the people away. And look, I, having sifted him before you, found no fault in this man concerning the things you accuse him of.THE THREAD
And he said, O full of every bait and all mischief, child of the Slanderer, enemy of all alignment, will you not stop twisting the straight ways of the Lord?The same Greek verb appears here as “pervert,” with the ways of the Lord as its object. The shared root lets you hear the image beneath the accusation in Luke: a way turned aside, an allegation the verse reports without certifying.
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