What Does Luke 6:3 Mean?
But Jesus answered them and said, Have you not read even this, what David did when he himself hungered, and those who were with him?
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 Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him;THE KEY
Jesus makes David’s hunger the test of whether the text has been understood, not merely read.
THE MEANING
The question reaches the reader now: David’s hunger, and the hunger of those with him, belong to what the text asks to be recognized. The human need in the verse is part of its meaning, not a detail that can be removed while keeping the reading whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that reading the words is enough even when the need they describe goes unseen.
THE ROOT
ἀνέγνωτε
anegnōte
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω (in ἀναγινώσκω)
know, recognize
The verb translated “read” comes from ἀναγινώσκω (anaginoskō), built on γινώσκω (ginōskō), “know, recognize.” Its word family links reading with knowing and making known; Jesus’ question turns on whether the readers recognize what David’s hunger means in the story.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: know, perceive
γινώσκω
This is the knowing verb within the word translated “read.”
gnōsis: knowledge
γνῶσις
The shared word family keeps reading close to what is actually known.
gnōrizō: make known, reveal
γνωρίζω
The family also reaches toward making something known, fitting Jesus’ question about what the readers recognize in David’s story.
דָּוִד
Dawid
GROWS FROM
ד־ו־ד
d-w-d
beloved
David’s Hebrew name carries the sense of “beloved.” Here the beloved one is also hungry: the name does not cancel bodily need, and the verse holds both together.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: beloved; also uncle or kinsman
דּוֹד
This related word carries affection and close kinship alongside David’s name.
dōdîm: loves, caresses
דּוֹדִים
This form names affection, echoing the beloved sense carried in David’s name.
THE PATTERN
The meaning of sacred practice is revealed in how it meets human need.
So the priest gave him set-apart bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the faces, which was removed from before the LORD, to set in hot bread on the day it was taken away.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.But if you had known what this means, I desire faithful love and not offering, you would not have condemned those without fault.THE THREAD
So the priest gave him set-apart bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the faces, which was removed from before the LORD, to set in hot bread on the day it was taken away.Jesus points directly to the moment when David’s hunger meets bread set apart before the LORD. That scene makes visible what his question asks the reader to recognize: David’s need belongs inside the story of the sacred bread.
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