What Does Luke 9:22 Mean?
Saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be set aside by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be slain, and be raised on the third day.
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
Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.THE KEY
In the Greek, rejection is a verdict of failed examination, but the verse places that verdict beside a raising it cannot prevent.
THE MEANING
The verse holds suffering, rejection, death, and raising together: the first three are real, yet they do not close the story. Jesus is not defined by the verdict of the authorities who reject him; being raised is also part of what the verse declares.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that rejection by respected authorities proves someone is unworthy, or that death is the final verdict.
THE ROOT
ἀποδοκιμασθῆναι
apodokimasthēnai
GROWS FROM
δοκιμ-
dokim-
Test, examine, and prove; the related verb can mean approve or reject after examination.
“set aside” in this verse is apodokimasthēnai. The Greek word for “rejected” carries the language of examination and disapproval: Jesus is assessed and pronounced unfit. The verse sets that human verdict beside his raising, so the examiners’ judgment does not determine the final outcome.
ALSO GROWS
dokimazō: To examine something and determine its worth or fitness.
δοκιμάζω
It reveals that this rejection is a judgment made after scrutiny, not merely an act of overlooking.
dokimos: One who has been tested and found genuine or acceptable.
δόκιμος
Its opposite sense sharpens the force of the verdict: Jesus is pronounced unfit by those who examine him, yet the verse does not let their assessment stand as the last word.
dokimē: The quality or result of having been tested.
δοκιμή
It connects rejection to the question of what remains after a verdict and a trial.
ἐγερθῆναι
egerthein
GROWS FROM
ἐγειρ-
egeir-
Wake, awaken, or raise from sleep or death.
The Greek verb can describe waking from sleep as well as being raised from death. The verse’s final movement is therefore an awakening: death is named plainly, but it does not hold the final state.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: To rouse someone from sleep or raise someone up.
ἐγείρω
Its range holds ordinary waking and resurrection in one verb, making “raised” concrete rather than abstract.
egersis: The act of being raised or awakened.
ἔγερσις
This noun uses the same root for the rising itself, echoing the verse’s movement beyond death.
THE PATTERN
The verdict that rejects the chosen one does not prevent that one from being raised into honor.
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.This is the stone you builders treated as nothing, which has become the head of the corner.Coming to him, as to a living stone, tested and set aside by men, but chosen by God and precious,THE THREAD
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.Luke’s “be rejected” and the Greek version of Psalm 118:22 use the same verb, ἀποδοκιμάζω (apodokimazō), meaning to examine and reject. The Psalm makes visible what Luke’s sequence carries: the rejected one can become foundational.
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