What Does Luke 4:7 Mean?
So if you bow down before me, all of it will be yours.
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
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.THE KEY
The price of “all” is a bow: the promised possession comes bound to the allegiance of the one who claims to give it.
THE MEANING
The promise of “all” stands on the far side of a bow: possession is offered together with allegiance to the one who claims power to give it. The bodily posture makes the bargain visible; the promised abundance is attached to submission. The verse speaks now wherever an offer of everything asks for a bend of allegiance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that an offer of everything can be received as neutral gain; this verse exposes the bowing allegiance attached to the offer.
THE ROOT
προσκυνήσῃς
proskynēsēs
GROWS FROM
προσκυν- (proskyn-), the stem of προσκυνέω (proskyneō)
To bow down before, or prostrate oneself; a bodily act of homage.
“bow down” in this verse is proskynēsēs. English “worship” can sound like an inward attitude, while προσκυν- names the bodily bow before someone. Here that posture is the price demanded for “all,” so the offer itself reveals the allegiance attached to it.
ALSO GROWS
proskyneō: Bow down; prostrate oneself; worship.
προσκυνέω
Matthew 4:10 uses this same verb family when the demanded bow is directed to God alone, making the question of allegiance explicit.
proskynētēs: One who bows down; worshipper.
προσκυνητής
John 4:23 uses this word for a worshipper, showing how the word family names both the act of bowing and the person who bows.
THE PATTERN
Power and allegiance meet at the bow: the one who receives it is acknowledged as the one to whom the worshipper yields.
Then Jesus said to him, Go away, Adversary, for it is written, You shall bow down to the LORD your God, and serve him alone.But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor bow down to the golden image which you have set up.And they bow down to the dragon, who has given authority to the beast, and they bow down to the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? And who is able to fight with him?THE THREAD
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true ones who bow down bow before the Father in breath and in truth, for the Father seeks such as these to bow before him.John 4:23 uses the same Greek word family: προσκυνηταί (proskynētai, worshippers, those who bow) and προσκυνήσουσιν (proskynēsousin, will bow down). The shared root names both the person and the posture, so Luke’s bargain exposes allegiance as something embodied in the direction of the bow.
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