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!
ἑαυτὸν | himself |
Parse: Reflexive Pronoun, Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular Root: ἑαυτοῦ Sense: himself, herself, itself, themselves. |
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δὲ | however |
Parse: Conjunction Root: δέ Sense: but, moreover, and, etc. |
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ἐλθὼν | having come |
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Singular Root: ἔρχομαι Sense: to come. |
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ἔφη | he was saying |
Parse: Verb, Imperfect Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: φημί Sense: to make known one’s thoughts, to declare. |
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Πόσοι | How many |
Parse: Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: πόσος Sense: how great. |
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μίσθιοι | hired servants |
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: μίσθιος Sense: employed for hire, hired. |
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τοῦ | of the |
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Singular Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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πατρός | father |
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular Root: προπάτωρ Sense: generator or male ancestor. |
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μου | of me |
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Singular Root: ἐγώ Sense: I, me, my. |
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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. |
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ἄρτων | of bread |
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: ἄρτος Sense: food composed of flour mixed with water and baked. |
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λιμῷ | with hunger |
Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Singular Root: λιμός Sense: scarcity of harvest, famine. |
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ὧδε | here |
Parse: Adverb Root: ὧδε Sense: here, to this place, etc. |
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ἀπόλλυμαι | am perishing |
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle, 1st Person Singular Root: ἀπόλλυμι Sense: to destroy. |
Greek Commentary for Luke 15:17
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]
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]
Old verb from περισσος perissos and that from περι peri (around). Present passive here, “are surrounded by loaves” like a flood. [source]
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]
Lit., abound in loaves. Wyc., plenty of loaves. [source]
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]
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
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]
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]