What Does Luke 9:59 Mean?
And he said to another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.
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 he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.THE KEY
He calls Jesus “Lord” while asking to go elsewhere first; the verse exposes the distance between naming the guide and taking his direction.
THE MEANING
Jesus’ summons to follow meets a request to leave and bury a father before responding to it. Honor and deferral sit in the same utterance: “Lord” is spoken, while “first” gives the next step to another claim. The verse leaves that order visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Calling Jesus “Lord” does not by itself mean the next step follows his direction; here the title is spoken as another claim is placed first.
THE ROOT
ἐπίτρεψον
epitrepson
GROWS FROM
ἐπιτρέπω
epitrepō
to allow or permit; also to entrust
Here “suffer” carries its older sense of “allow”: the speaker asks Jesus to permit him to depart. The related language of permission and entrusting gives the request a sharper edge: it concerns who may direct the next movement, and when.
ALSO GROWS
epitropē: permission, leave, or authorization
ἐπιτροπή
This related noun makes explicit the permission being requested in “suffer me.”
epitropos: a steward or guardian entrusted with oversight
ἐπίτροπος
This related word carries the sense of being entrusted with responsibility, echoing the question of who directs what happens next.
πρῶτον
proton
GROWS FROM
πρῶτος
prōtos
first or foremost in an order
The request marks its own sequence: burial comes before following. “First” names precedence, not a priority the reader has to infer.
ALSO GROWS
prōtos: first, foremost
πρῶτος
This is the form behind the request’s explicit order: one action is to come before the other.
prōtotokos: firstborn
πρωτότοκος
The same firstness can mark a place in a family order, bringing the family claim in this request into sharper view.
ἀκολούθει
akolouthei
GROWS FROM
ἀκολουθέω (akoloutheō), stem ἀκολουθ- (akolouth-)
to follow or accompany, to go with
“follow” in this verse is akolouthei. The command carries the sense of going in someone’s company. That makes the response’s proposed order tangible: the speaker asks to move elsewhere before going with Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
akolouthos: a companion, follower, or attendant
ἀκόλουθος
This related noun presents following as taking a place in another’s company.
akolouthōs: in sequence or accordingly
ἀκολούθως
This related adverb retains the sense of proceeding in an order, echoing the sequence marked by “first.”
THE PATTERN
Answering a call to follow makes visible which claim takes precedence.
And he let go of the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me, please, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will walk after you." And he said to him, "Go, turn back, for what have I done to you?"But Jesus said to him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.Yes indeed, I count all things as loss, because of the surpassing of knowing Jesus the Anointed One, my Lord; for whom I have lost all things, and I count them as dung, that I may gain the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and herald the governance of God.This next line turns the requested order inside out: the dead are assigned burial, while the one addressed is told to go and proclaim God’s governance. It makes the unresolved “first” in this verse the hinge of the exchange.
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