What Does Luke 23:40 Mean?
But the other answered and rebuked him, saying, Do you not stand in awe of God, since you are under the same judgment?
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
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?THE KEY
The question about fearing God comes from inside the same verdict it names: the one asking is under it too.
THE MEANING
You stand under the same sentence as the person you address. Judgment is immediate here; no one in this exchange speaks from outside its reach. The question “Dost not thou fear God?” names awe in the presence of that shared exposure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s judgment leaves you untouched: the verse places both people under the same condemnation.
THE ROOT
κρίματι
krimati
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To judge, decide, or distinguish; κρίμα is a judgment or verdict.
English “condemnation” can foreground the punishment, while κρίμα also carries the sense of a judgment or verdict. The word keeps the judgment itself in view: the question is spoken from within the same verdict it names.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: To judge or decide
κρίνω
The verb shares the root of κρίμα and shows judgment as an act of deciding.
krisis: Judgment or decision
κρίσις
This related word keeps the root’s sense of judgment visible across the language.
krima: Judgment, verdict, or condemnation
κρίμα
This is the word behind “condemnation” here and in Matthew 7:2’s “what judgment.”
φοβῇ
phobē
GROWS FROM
φοβ-
phob-
Fear or dread; in reference to God, the sense can include awe.
“stand in awe” in this verse is phobē. The verb allows fear and reverent awe, not just nervousness. Here awe appears alongside shared exposure: God is invoked while both stand under the same sentence.
ALSO GROWS
phobos: Fear or dread
φόβος
This related noun shows the fear at the heart of the verb.
phoberos: Fearful or awe-inspiring
φοβερός
This branch shows how the same word family can describe what inspires fear or awe.
THE PATTERN
No one addresses judgment from a place untouched by its reach.
Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no living one is aligned before your face.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.Therefore you have no word to answer with, O human, whoever you are who judges others, for in whatever you judge in another you press the sentence down upon yourself, for you who judge practice the very same things.THE THREAD
For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.Luke’s “condemnation” is κρίματι, from the same Greek word family as the “judgment” repeated in Matthew 7:2. Matthew makes the shared root’s reciprocity explicit: the judgment a person speaks also reaches the speaker.
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