The Meaning of Luke 15:17 Explained

Luke 15:17

KJV: And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

YLT: 'And having come to himself, he said, How many hirelings of my father have a superabundance of bread, and I here with hunger am perishing!

Darby: And coming to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have abundance of bread, and I perish here by famine.

ASV: But when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger!

KJV Reverse Interlinear

And  when he came  to  himself,  he said,  How many  hired servants  of my  father's  have bread  enough and to spare,  and  I  perish  with hunger! 

What does Luke 15:17 Mean?

Context Summary

Luke 15:11-24 - The Son Who "came To Himself" And To His Father
The pearl of parables! Too often we desire God's gifts apart from Himself. The far country is not far in actual distance, but in the alienation of the heart. You may be living in a pious home and yet be in the far country. Sin is waste. The far country is always swept by famine, because our soul was made for God and cannot live on husks. Neither things nor people can really appease our awful hunger if we are away from God.
Sin is temporary madness. The first step to God is to come to ourselves. The prodigal's real nature stood face to face with the ruin and havoc of his sin. Never, for a moment, had the Father ceased to love and yearn. There was an instant response to the slightest indication of repentance. Love was quicker than words, to understand what the prodigal meant. The confession was therefore cut short. Note the profuse welcome, meeting every need-the robe of righteousness, the ring of reconciliation, the kiss of love, the shoes of a holy walk, the feast of fellowship. [source]

Chapter Summary: Luke 15

1  The parable of the lost sheep;
8  of the piece of silver;
11  of the prodigal son

Greek Commentary for Luke 15:17

But when he came to himself [εις εαυτον δε ελτων]
As if he had been far from himself as he was from home. As a matter of fact he had been away, out of his head, and now began to see things as they really were. Plato is quoted by Ackerman (Christian Element in Plato) as thinking of redemption as coming to oneself. [source]
Hired servants [μιστιοι]
A late word from μιστος — misthos (hire). In the N.T. only in this chapter. The use of “many” here suggests a wealthy and luxurious home. Have bread enough and to spare (περισσευονται αρτων — perisseuontai artōn). Old verb from περισσος — perissos and that from περι — peri (around). Present passive here, “are surrounded by loaves” like a flood. I perish Every word here counts: While I on the other hand am here perishing with hunger. It is the linear present middle of απολλυμι — apollumi Note εγω — egō expressed and δε — de of contrast. [source]
Have bread enough and to spare [περισσευονται αρτων]
Old verb from περισσος — perissos and that from περι — peri (around). Present passive here, “are surrounded by loaves” like a flood. [source]
I perish [εγω δε λιμωι ωδε απολλυμαι]
Every word here counts: While I on the other hand am here perishing with hunger. It is the linear present middle of απολλυμι — apollumi Note εγω — egō expressed and δε — de of contrast. [source]
Have bread enough and to spare [περισσεύονται ἄρτων]
Lit., abound in loaves. Wyc., plenty of loaves. [source]
Came to himself []
A striking expression, putting the state of rebellion against God as a kind of madness. It is a wonderful stroke of art, to represent the beginning of repentance as the return of a sound consciousness. Ackermann (“Christian Element in Plato”) observes that Plato thinks of redemption as a coming to one's self; an apprehending of one's self as existent; as a severing of the inmost being from the surrounding element. Several passages of Plato are very suggestive on this point. “He who bids a man know himself, would have him know his soul” (“Alcibiades,” i., 130). “' To see her (the soul) as she really is, not as we now behold her, marred by communion with the body and other miseries, you should look upon her with the eye of reason, in her original purity, and then her beauty would be discovered, and in her image justice would be more clearly seen, and injustice, and all the things which we have described. Thus far we have spoken the truth concerning her as she appears at present; but we must remember also that we have seen her only in a condition which may be compared to that of the sea-god Glaucus, whose original image can hardly be discerned, because his natural members are broken off and crushed, and in many ways damaged by the waves; and incrustations have grown over them of sea-weed and shells and stones, so that he is liker to some sea-monster than to his natural form. And the soul is in a similar condition, disfigured by ten thousand ills: but not there, Glaucon, not there must we look.' “'Where, then?'-DIVIDER-
“'At-DIVIDER-
her love of wisdom. Let us see whom she affects, and what converse she seeks, in virtue of her near kindred with the immortal and eternal and divine; also, how different she would become, if wholly following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse out of the ocean in which she now is, and disengaged from the stones and shells and things of earth and rock, which, in wild variety, grow around her, because she feeds upon earth, and is crusted over by the good things of this life as they are termed. Then would you see her as she is'” (“Republic,” 611). [source]

Perish []
Better, I am perishing. The best texts insert ὧδε , here, in contrast with the father's house, suggested by the father's servants. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 15:17

Luke 15:26 Servants [παιδων]
Not δουλοι — douloi (bondslaves) as in Luke 15:22. The Greeks often used παις — pais for servant like the Latin puer. It could be either a hired servant (μιστιος — misthios Luke 15:17) or slave (δουλος — doulos). [source]
Acts 12:11 Was come to himself [εν εαυτωι γενομενος]
Second aorist middle participle of γινομαι — ginomai with εν — en and the locative case, “becoming at himself.” In Luke 15:17 we have εις εαυτον ελτων — eis heauton elthōn (coming to himself, as if he had been on a trip away from himself). [source]

What do the individual words in Luke 15:17 mean?

To himself however having come he was saying How many hired servants of the father of me have abundance of bread I with hunger here am perishing
Εἰς ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἐλθὼν ἔφη Πόσοι μίσθιοι τοῦ πατρός μου περισσεύονται ἄρτων ἐγὼ λιμῷ ὧδε ἀπόλλυμαι

ἑαυτὸν  himself 
Parse: Reflexive Pronoun, Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Root: ἑαυτοῦ  
Sense: himself, herself, itself, themselves.
δὲ  however 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: δέ  
Sense: but, moreover, and, etc.
ἐλθὼν  having  come 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: ἔρχομαι  
Sense: to come.
ἔφη  he  was  saying 
Parse: Verb, Imperfect Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: φημί  
Sense: to make known one’s thoughts, to declare.
Πόσοι  How  many 
Parse: Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: πόσος  
Sense: how great.
μίσθιοι  hired  servants 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: μίσθιος  
Sense: employed for hire, hired.
τοῦ  of  the 
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
πατρός  father 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: προπάτωρ 
Sense: generator or male ancestor.
μου  of  me 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.
περισσεύονται  have  abundance 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle, 3rd Person Plural
Root: περισσεύω  
Sense: to exceed a fixed number of measure, to be left over and above a certain number or measure.
ἄρτων  of  bread 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural
Root: ἄρτος  
Sense: food composed of flour mixed with water and baked.
λιμῷ  with  hunger 
Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Singular
Root: λιμός  
Sense: scarcity of harvest, famine.
ὧδε  here 
Parse: Adverb
Root: ὧδε  
Sense: here, to this place, etc.
ἀπόλλυμαι  am  perishing 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle, 1st Person Singular
Root: ἀπόλλυμι  
Sense: to destroy.