Luke 14:4

Greek (Tischendorf 8th ed.)

English Translation

But they were silent. He took him, and healed him, and let him go.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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ἐπιλαβόμενος

epilambánomai

G1949

“to overtake”

Verb, Aorist, Middle deponent, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Masculine

Appears 19× in the Greek New Testament
First appears at Matthew 14:31

Full Thayer's Definition

Origin: middle voice from G1909 and G2983

TDNT: 4:9,*

1. to take in addition, to lay hold of, take possession of, overtake, attain, attain to a. to lay hold of or to seize upon anything with the hands, to take hold of, lay hold of b. metaph. to rescue one from peril, to help, succour

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
5: distinct lemmas
Gospels: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is ἐπιλαβόμενος to overtake G1949 — appearing just 19 times in the whole Greek New Testament.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

ἐπιλαβόμενος to overtake G1949 occurs in 18 verses of the Greek New Testament. Also found in:

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse:

καὶ and G2532 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Luke 14:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Matthew 21:25–27 The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?" They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'
Matthew 22:46 No one was able to answer him a word, neither dared any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Commentary

Notes on Luke 14:4 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Commentary source

Bengel's Gnomon

Johann Albrecht Bengel

Luk 14:4. Ἰάσατο, He healed him) His adversaries were using the dropsical man as the cloke for assailing the Lord: but yet Jesus conferred the benefit on him.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 4. They held their peace.] They could not answer the question but in the affirmative; and as they were determined to accuse him if he did heal the man, they could not give an answer but such as would condemn themselves, and therefore they were silent.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) And he took him.—Better, he laid hold on him. The healing was, in this instance, effected by actual contact.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

4. they held their peace] It was the silence of a splenetic pride and obstinacy which while secretly convinced determined to remain unconvinced. But such silence was His complete public justification. If the contemplated miracle was unlawful why did not they—the great religious authorities of Judaism—forbid it?

he took him] Rather, taking hold of him, i.e. laying his hand upon him.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And they held their peace,.... Or were silent, choosing to say nothing, which might countenance such an action; and yet knew not how to condemn it:

and he took him, and healed him, and let him go; he took him by the hand, or laid his hands on him; he touched him, and, it may be, stroked the part affected, and in an instant the prodigious swelling of his body came down: for he who at his rebuke could dry up the sea, could by a touch dry up such a quantity of water, as was in this man's body; and then he dismissed him from the table and company, and he went home perfectly cured.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;

Ver. 4. And he took him] Good must be done, however it be taken.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They held their peace - They were silent. They “could” not say it was not lawful, for the law did not forbid it. If it had they would have said it. Here was the time for them to make objections if they had any, and not after the man was healed; and as they “made” no objection “then,” they could not with consistency afterward. They were, therefore, effectually silenced and confounded by the Saviour.

He took him - Took hold of the man, or perhaps took him apart into another room. By taking hold of him, or touching him, he showed that the power of healing went forth from himself.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

4. Held their peace—Unable to condemn what their law permitted; unwilling to concede a point on which so much cavil had been founded. Jesus proposes the old question, as if the advantage had fairly turned on his side.

Took… healed… let go—Displaying his own mastery before their watching eyes with a sort of calm, majestic omnipotence.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And they held their peace. What could they say? If they had pressed the absurd restrictions with which they hedged round the sabbath day, they felt they would be crushed by one of the Master"s deep and powerful arguments. They had hoped he would have acted on the impulse of the moment, and healed the sufferer or else failed; but his calm question confused them. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go. With one of his majestic exercises of Divine power so slight a task to Christ the deadly disease was cured in a moment, and then, with quiet crushing contempt, the Physician passed into the Rabbi, and to the awe-struck guests he put a question; it was his apology for the late infringement of the traditions of the sabbath day. What had they to say?

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

But they kept silent

The religious leaders refused to answer Jesus' question.

So Jesus took hold of him

"So Jesus took hold of the man who suffered from edema"

Which of you who has a son or an ox ... will not immediately pull him out?

Jesus uses a question because he wanted them to admit that they would help their son or ox, even on the Sabbath. Therefore, it was right for him to heal people even on the Sabbath. AT: "If one of you has a son or an ox ... you would surely pull him out immediately." (See: Rhetorical Question)

They were not able to give an answer

They knew the answer and that Jesus was right, but they did not want to admit that he was correct. AT: "They had nothing to say"

translationWords

Jesus

cow

cistern

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges

4. ἐπιλαβόμενος. ‘Taking hold of him,’ i.e. laying his hand upon him.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

International Critical Commentary

4. ἐπιλαβόμενος ἰά́σατο. That the laying hold of him is to be regarded as the means of the cure is not certain. The touching in order to heal is more often expressed by ἅπτεσθαι (5:13, 22:51; Mar 1:41, Mar 1:7:33, Mar 1:8:22; Mat 8:3, Mat 8:15, Mat 8:17:7, Mat 8:20:34) or by ἐπιτιθέναι τὰς χεῖρας (4:40, 13:13; Mar 6:5, Mar 6:8:23, Mar 6:25, etc.). Both ἰᾶσαθαι (see small print on 5:17) and ἐπιλαβέσθαι (9:47, 20:20, 26, 23:26, etc.) are freq. in Lk. Christ read the man’s faith, as He read the hostility of the Pharisees, and responded to it.

ἀπέλυσεν. This probably means something more than the letting go after the ἐπιλαβόμενος, viz. “dismissed him” from the company, to prevent interference with him.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament

Marvin R. Vincent

Took. Took hold of him. Luk 20:20; 1Ti 6:12.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Luke, in the Gospels, opens this verse with 6 words (5 distinct Greek lemmas). Its most distinctive word is epilambánomai (“to overtake”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to overtake” (epilambánomai) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Matthew 14:31 shares the word «to overtake» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“and” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
Reading how Bengel's Gnomon and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
“and” occurs 2× in this single verse.
5 distinct Greek lemmas span 6 words in this verse.