What Does Luke 9:17 Mean?
And they ate, and were all filled. And twelve baskets of the broken pieces that remained were lifted up.
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 did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.THE KEY
The miracle is not only that everyone is filled, but that fullness leaves a countable remainder.
THE MEANING
The verse holds satisfaction and surplus together: everyone is filled, and what remains is gathered into twelve baskets. The abundance is visible enough to count.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that satisfying everyone must use up all available provision falls away: the verse holds fullness and surplus in the same scene.
THE ROOT
περισσεῦσαν
perisseusan
GROWS FROM
περισσ-
periss-
Abounding, exceeding; what remains beyond what was consumed.
“remained” in this verse is perisseusan. The Greek form περισσεῦσαν (perisseusan, “what was left over”) comes from περισσεύω (perisseuō, “to abound, exceed, or be left over”). Its word family makes the remainder part of abundance itself: everyone’s satisfaction does not exhaust what is given.
ALSO GROWS
perissos: Abundant; beyond the ordinary measure.
περισσός
The shared περισσ- (periss-) stem links what remains with what exceeds the expected measure.
perisseia: Abundance; surplus.
περισσεία
This related form names the condition the gathered fragments make visible: more remains than was needed to fill everyone.
THE PATTERN
Provision reaches its recipients fully and can still exceed the measure of need.
So he placed it before them, and they ate, and some remained, according to the word of the LORD.You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.Now to him who is strong enough to do beyond all that we ask or perceive, overflowing past measure, according to the strength that works in us.THE THREAD
When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the broken pieces that remain, so that nothing perishes.John’s word for “remain” belongs to the same περισσεύω (perisseuō, “abound or remain over”) word family as Luke’s. In both verses, the fragments are gathered after everyone is filled, making the surplus part of the sign.
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