What Does Luke 5:33 Mean?
And they said to him, The disciples of John go without food often and make petitions, likewise also the disciples of the separated ones, but yours eat and drink.
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 said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?THE KEY
The verse names both sides as learners before contrasting their practices, so practice alone cannot explain their difference.
THE MEANING
You see learners gathered around different rhythms: some fast and make petitions, while others eat and drink. The verse holds both groups in view without declaring one practice the measure of every learner. Its next line shows that the difference turns on what is present in the moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every sincere learner must show devotion through the same visible practice does not hold here.
THE ROOT
μαθηταί
mathētai
GROWS FROM
μαθ-
learn
“disciples” in this verse is mathētai. The same word names John’s learners, the Pharisees’ learners, and Jesus’ learners. Their practices differ, but the verse first places them all in the posture of learning.
ALSO GROWS
mathētēs: learner, disciple
μαθητής
This is the singular form behind “disciples,” naming someone by learning rather than by a particular discipline.
mathēma: lesson, what is learned
μάθημα
Its shared stem links the learners in the verse to what they take in; their different habits do not erase that shared root.
νηστεύουσιν
nēsteuousin
GROWS FROM
νηστ-
fast, abstain from food
“go without food” in this verse is nēsteuousin. Fasting is set directly beside eating and drinking, making the contrast visible in the body as well as in religious practice. The same verb returns in the next verse, where fasting belongs to a different moment.
ALSO GROWS
nēsteia: fasting
νηστεία
The noun names the practice that the verb describes in this verse.
nēsteuōn: one who is fasting
νηστεύων
This participle keeps the same root for the person undergoing the practice, showing fasting as a state within a particular time.
δεήσεις
deēseis
GROWS FROM
δεη-
need, request, plea
“make petitions” in this verse is deēseis. The word translated “prayers” specifically carries the sense of petitions or pleas. It presents the fasting group’s practice as an expression of need, not simply a general marker of religious identity.
ALSO GROWS
deēsis: petition, plea, supplication
δέησις
This is the singular form of the word used for “prayers” here.
deomai: need, ask, plead
δέομαι
The related verb brings the sense of need beneath the petition named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The fitting form of a practice can change with the season and what is present.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to leap.And he said to them, Can you make the sons of the bridechamber go without food, while the bridegroom is with them?Thus says the LORD of hosts. The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah leaping and gladness, and good appointed meetings. Therefore love the truth and wholeness.THE THREAD
But days will come, when the bridegroom is lifted away from them, and then in those days they will go without food.The Greek verb for “fast” here returns in the next verse: νηστεύουσιν becomes νηστεύσουσιν. The next line names what changes, the bridegroom is taken away, so the contrast is tied to presence and time, not to a ranking of learners.
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