What Does Luke 3:14 Mean?
And the soldiers also asked him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said to them, Shake no one down, and accuse no one falsely, and let your pay be enough for you.
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 soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.THE KEY
John names two ways of shaking people down, by force and by false accusation, and sets sufficiency as the limit on taking.
THE MEANING
Your power over another person becomes visible in what you take and in the story you attach to it. This verse names force and false accusation as ways to extract more than is due, then measures restraint by whether the agreed wage is enough. Its words speak wherever authority can make another person pay.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that power makes extraction legitimate, or that a false charge makes it deserved.
THE ROOT
διασείσητε
diaseisēte
GROWS FROM
σείω
seíō
Shake or agitate; the compound verb can mean to shake violently, intimidate, or extort.
“Shake down” in this verse is diaseisēte. The verb carries the image of shaking someone down: coercive power makes another person tremble and pay. That sharpens “violence” into an abuse of leverage, fitting the nearby ban on false accusation.
ALSO GROWS
seíō: Shake; move violently.
σείω
The compound used here keeps the physical image of making someone shake beneath another’s power.
seismós: A shaking; an earthquake.
σεισμός
This related word names a shaking that unsettles the ground, making the force in “do violence” more vivid than a generic prohibition.
συκοφαντήσητε
sykophantēsēte
GROWS FROM
συκοφαντέω
sykophantéō
Accuse falsely, inform against, or extort through accusation.
This verb can mean both to accuse falsely and to extort through accusation, so the verse names a form of taking that wears the face of lawful authority. The same verb appears when Zacchaeus describes taking from someone by false accusation and promises restoration.
ALSO GROWS
sykophántēs: A false accuser; an informer.
συκοφάντης
The related noun makes clear that the accusation itself can become a weapon.
sykophantía: False accusation; extortion by accusation.
συκοφαντία
This related noun names the practice as a means of extraction, linking the charge to material harm.
ἀρκεῖσθε
arkeisthe
GROWS FROM
ἀρκέω
arkéō
Suffice, be enough, or be content.
“be enough” in this verse is arkeisthe. Here, contentment is framed as sufficiency: the wages set a boundary around what is due. The verse places a limit on taking without demanding that the wages be abundant.
ALSO GROWS
arkéō: Be enough; suffice; be content.
ἀρκέω
The verb ties contentment to what suffices, not to getting more from someone else.
arketós: Sufficient; enough.
ἀρκετός
This related adjective appears in “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34), echoing the language of enough.
THE PATTERN
Authority is exposed by what it takes: honest power stays within what is due, while exploitation is named and repaired.
And he said to them, Collect no more than what has been set for you.Here I am. Answer against me before the LORD and before his anointed one. Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey? Whom have I pressed, or whom have I crushed? From whose hand have I taken a ransom to shut my eyes with it? And I will return it to you.And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of what I have to the emptied, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I give back fourfold."THE THREAD
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of what I have to the emptied, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I give back fourfold."Luke 19:8 uses the same Greek verb for taking by false accusation that John uses here. Zacchaeus pairs that accusation with a fourfold repayment, revealing it as a way of extracting real goods, not merely making a false claim.
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