What Does Luke 4:13 Mean?
When the Slanderer had ended every testing, he stepped away from him until a fitting time.
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 the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.THE KEY
The Slanderer leaves only until a season, so the end of this temptation is an interval, not a final ending.
THE MEANING
What you face as temptation can truly end; the verse still sets that ending within a season, with another encounter possible. A period without pressure is real, but it does not itself mean every future test has vanished.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The pause in pressure means the struggle is permanently over.
THE ROOT
καιροῦ
kairou
GROWS FROM
καιρ-
kair-
A fitting or appointed time; an opportune moment or season.
“until a fitting time” in this verse is kairou. The Greek καιρός (kairos, a fitting or opportune time) can name a moment that arrives, not only a duration on a clock. The departure is bounded by what comes next: the encounter has ended for now, while another occasion remains possible.
ALSO GROWS
kairos: A season, fitting time, or opportune moment.
καιρός
This is the noun used in the verse; it makes the departure temporary.
eukairia: A favorable opportunity.
εὐκαιρία
This related word shows how καιρ- can carry the sense of a moment presenting itself.
akairos: Untimely or out of season.
ἄκαιρος
Its contrast with καιρός makes the root’s sense of timing visible.
πειρασμόν
peirasmon
GROWS FROM
πειρα-
peira-
To try, test, or put to proof.
“every testing” in this verse is peirasmon. The word πειρασμός (peirasmos, testing or temptation) belongs to a family that holds both a test and an enticement. The English word can sound only like an invitation to do wrong, while the Greek also lets the verse name an ordeal that is being undergone and brought to its end.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: To try, test, or tempt.
πειράζω
This verb shares the word family and shows that the encounter can be both a test and an enticement.
peira: An attempt, trial, or experience.
πεῖρα
This related noun keeps the sense of undergoing a test alongside the sense of being enticed.
διάβολος
diabolos
GROWS FROM
βάλλω (ballō), with διά (dia)
βάλλω (ballō) means to throw or cast; διά (dia) contributes the sense of across or through in the compound.
διάβολος (diabolos, the Slanderer) names the adversary by the nature of accusation. Its related verb διαβάλλω (diaballō, to slander or accuse) connects the name with accusation cast between parties; here that presence leaves, but only for an interval.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: To throw or cast.
βάλλω
This verbal base gives the compound its image of casting.
diaballō: To slander or accuse.
διαβάλλω
This related verb brings out the accusatory nature carried by διάβολος (diabolos, the Slanderer).
THE PATTERN
Testing comes in encounters, while endurance spans the intervals between them.
And it came to pass after these words, God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."You are the ones who have stayed with me through my trials.Flourishing is the man who stays under testing, for having been proven he will take hold of the crown of life, which he has promised to those who love him.THE THREAD
For we do not have a high priest who cannot suffer alongside our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every way as we are, apart from falling short.Luke uses πειρασμός (peirasmos, testing or temptation); Hebrews uses πειράζω (peirazō, to test or tempt), from the same word family. Hebrews opens Luke’s brief account into a fuller field of testing and keeps clear the distinction between being tempted and sinning.
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