What Does Luke 6:4 Mean?
How he entered the house of God, and took the bread set out before, and ate it, and gave it also to those with him, which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?
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
How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?THE KEY
The Greek calls this “bread of the setting forth”: what is set before God is also eaten and shared with David’s companions.
THE MEANING
This verse places sacred bread before you as food David and his companions eat and share. The priest-only boundary stays visible in the same scene as the sharing, holding consecration and human use together without erasing the tension.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that what is dedicated to God must remain untouched by human need. The verse keeps the “priests alone” boundary while also naming David’s eating and sharing.
THE ROOT
προθέσεως
protheseōs
GROWS FROM
θε
thē
The root family of τίθημι (tithēmi) means “set” or “place”; πρόθεσις (prothesis) is a setting forth or placing before.
“bread set out before” in this verse is protheseōs. The Greek name means “bread of the setting forth”: it describes the bread’s placement, not only its appearance. Here, bread set before God is also eaten and given to companions.
ALSO GROWS
tithēmi: to set, place, put
τίθημι
This verb supplies the idea of placing in πρόθεσις (prothesis, “setting forth”); the bread’s name carries the act of setting it before God.
thesis: a placing, position
θέσις
This related form makes the placement explicit: “shewbread” names bread by where and how it is set.
prothesis: a setting forth, presentation
πρόθεσις
This is the noun behind the bread’s Greek description, connecting its sacred presentation with its later sharing.
ἱερεῦσιν
hiereusin
GROWS FROM
ἱερ
hier
The Greek word family carries the sense of the sacred.
The Greek family connects priests with the sanctuary and priestly service through the language of the sacred. The verse keeps “priests alone” in view even as it says David shares the bread with those beside him.
ALSO GROWS
hieron: sanctuary, temple
ἱερόν
The same sacred word family links the priestly boundary to the place where the bread is set apart.
hierateia: priesthood, priestly service
ἱερατεία
This branch names the sacred role associated with the bread’s restricted use.
hierōsynē: priestly office
ἱερωσύνη
It shows that “priests alone” belongs to an established sacred order, which the verse places beside David’s sharing.
ἔδωκεν
edōken
GROWS FROM
δω
dō
The give-family means “give” or “grant,” putting something into another’s hands.
“gave” in this verse is edōken. The verse moves from taking and eating to giving the bread outward. The verb makes the sharing part of the scene, not an incidental detail.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: to give, grant
δίδωμι
This is the verb’s base form; the verse shows its action passing bread from David to his companions.
dosis: a giving, gift
δόσις
This related noun makes the act of giving visible in the scene’s movement from received bread to shared bread.
dotēr: giver
δοτήρ
This branch names the one who gives; the bread’s passage to companions has an agent and a direction.
THE PATTERN
What is held within God’s order is made to sustain human lives.
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.When you cut down your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you do not turn back to take hold of it. It is for the sojourner, for the fatherless, and for the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the making of your hands.And they, holding fast day by day with one passion in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, took their food with gladness and singleness of heart.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.Luke’s Greek phrase is “bread of the setting forth,” and the Greek translation of this verse uses the same phrase for the bread taken from before the LORD. This account makes explicit the movement Luke compresses: the priest gives David the set-apart bread, and David shares it with his companions.
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