Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Luke 14:5 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 5. 5And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Luke 14:5 uses emergency Sabbath rescue in a textual tradition that varies between son and animal.
Dropsy at a sabbath table, and the room cannot answer
This verse is one part of that explanation in Luke 14:1–14:6. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Luke 14:1–14:6
Read Luke 14:5 with 14:1–14:6. In isolation, this contribution—uses emergency Sabbath rescue in a textual tradition that varies between son and animal—can be detached from its speaker, audience, scene or teaching sequence, and outcome. The complete unit establishes: At a leading Pharisee's Sabbath meal Jesus responds to scrutiny by asking about lawful healing, restores a man with dropsy, invokes rescuing a child or animal, and leaves the lawyers and Pharisees unable to answer.
Follow the Context
- Identify the actors, setting, and initiating speech or action in Luke 14:1–14:6.
- At a leading Pharisee's Sabbath meal Jesus responds to scrutiny by asking about lawful healing, restores a man with dropsy, invokes rescuing a child or animal, and leaves the lawyers and Pharisees unable to answer.
- Hold this material interpretive limit in view: The KJV manuscript tradition varies between 'ass' and 'son' in the rescue example. The meal remains Jewish debate over Sabbath mercy, not an attack on Judaism.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not detach its specific contribution—uses emergency Sabbath rescue in a textual tradition that varies between son and animal—from the complete unit or override the unit's explicit boundary: This scene does not authorize antisemitism, medical spectacle, diagnosing swelling morally, or humiliating a patient to win an argument.
What Remains True
Luke 14:5 uses emergency Sabbath rescue in a textual tradition that varies between son and animal. Read inside Luke 14:1–14:6, this contribution supports the unit's proportionate truth: At a leading Pharisee's Sabbath meal Jesus responds to scrutiny by asking about lawful healing, restores a man with dropsy, invokes rescuing a child or animal, and leaves the lawyers and Pharisees unable to answer. Its use remains accountable to affected people and the unit's explicit boundary.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Luke 14:1–14:6 — A Sabbath Meal Begins with Healing and SilenceSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The KJV manuscript tradition varies between 'ass' and 'son' in the rescue example. The meal remains Jewish debate over Sabbath mercy, not an attack on Judaism.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and coverage.
Exact location: Luke 14:1–14:6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations; the edition is not treated as a complete apparatus.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Luke.txt, 14:1–14:6
Open the Luke Greek text file ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Luke
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, KJV-language clarification, historical notes, Synoptic parallels, and textual alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Luke PDF, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to Luke 14:1–14:6
Open source ↗