What Does Luke 8:20 Mean?
And someone told him, Your mother and your brothers stand outside, wanting to see you.
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 it was told him by certain which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee.THE KEY
Blood brings Jesus’ family to the doorway, but the next line locates kinship in hearing and doing God’s word.
THE MEANING
You can be close to Jesus by family identity and still stand outside, wanting to see him. The verse holds that longing plainly, then turns your attention to what makes his family: hearing God’s word and doing it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the assumption that being related to Jesus, or wanting access to him, by itself defines belonging to him.
THE ROOT
ἰδεῖν
idein
GROWS FROM
ὁράω
horaō
To see or perceive.
The family’s wish is to see Jesus, and the Greek word carries the wider sense of perception as well as sight. That range opens a question the next verse answers: what does it mean to truly perceive him?
ALSO GROWS
horasis: Vision or sight.
ὅρασις
This branch shows how the root of seeing extends beyond a glance to vision.
horama: A vision; what is seen.
ὅραμα
This branch keeps the focus on what comes into view when someone sees.
THE PATTERN
Belonging to God’s household takes shape through hearing the word and doing it.
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.And he answered, saying to them, My mother and my brothers are these, those who hear the word of God and do it.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
And he answered, saying to them, My mother and my brothers are these, those who hear the word of God and do it.The next verse answers the scene at the doorway by naming who Jesus calls family. Their place is shaped by hearing God’s word and doing it.
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