The Meaning of Luke 16:16 Explained

Luke 16:16

KJV: The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

YLT: the law and the prophets are till John; since then the reign of God is proclaimed good news, and every one doth press into it;

Darby: The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the glad tidings of the kingdom of God are announced, and every one forces his way into it.

ASV: The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man entereth violently into it.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

The law  and  the prophets  [were] until  John:  since  that time  the kingdom  of God  is preached,  and  every man  presseth  into  it. 

What does Luke 16:16 Mean?

Study Notes

the kingdom
.
suffereth violence
It has been much disputed whether the "violence" here is external, as against the kingdom in the persons of John the Baptist and Jesus; or that, considering the opposition of the scribes and Pharisees, only the violently resolute would press into it. Both things are true. The King and His herald suffered violence, and this is the primary and greater meaning, but also, some were resolutely becoming disciples. CF Luke 16:16 .

Verse Meaning

The Hebrew Scriptures should have been of primary importance to the Pharisees. They pointed to the coming of Messiah. Since John the Baptist had come the message that he and Jesus had proclaimed had been that the Messiah was present and the kingdom was at hand. A new era had begun with John"s preaching, not the kingdom. The Pharisees had disregarded that preaching and in doing so had rejected the teaching of the Old Testament even though their fellow Jews were trying to get into the kingdom (cf. Luke 13:24; Luke 14:15; Mark 7:8-9).
The fact that Jesus said something similar about the kingdom on another occasion that Matthew recorded has raised questions about Jesus" meaning here and there (cf. Matthew 11:12-13). In Matthew , Jesus" point was this. The Jewish religious leaders were trying to bring in the kingdom in their own carnal way while refusing to accept God"s way that John and Jesus announced. In the different teaching situation that Luke recorded, Jesus said something similar but slightly different. His point here was that many of the Jews were eager to enter the kingdom, but the religious leaders were hindering them by rejecting John and Jesus" ministries.
". . . those pressing into the kingdom must be at least as much in earnest as the violent men of Palestine who tried to bring in the kingdom by force of arms. In the context we may think of men like the astute steward." [1]

Context Summary

Luke 16:14-31 - A Look Into The Future
Here was a flagrant case of heartless indifference, amid luxuries of every kind, to the daily spectacle of abject need. Most of us have at least one Lazarus at the gates of our life. The charge against the rich man was, not that he had injured Lazarus, but that he had not helped him. Man condemns us for doing wrong, God for failing to do right.
Lazarus was translated to the realm of blessedness-the bosom of Abraham bespeaking nearness to him at the great feast-not because he had been so poor and miserable, but because, beggar though he was, he possessed the faith of heart and the purity of motive that characterized his great ancestor.
Notice that memory plays a conspicuous part in the sorrow of Gehenna; that Christ gives no hope of changing the soul's habitation; and that we have in the Scripture a more certain agent of spiritual renewal than would be provided by even the apparition of the dead. [source]

Chapter Summary: Luke 16

1  The parable of the unjust steward
14  Jesus reproves the hypocrisy of the covetous Pharisees
19  The parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar

Greek Commentary for Luke 16:16

Entereth violently into it [εις αυτην βιαζεται]
A corresponding saying occurs in Matthew 11:12 in a very different context. In both the verb βιαζεται — biazetai occurs also, but nowhere else in the N.T. It is present middle here and can be middle or passive in Matthew, which see note. It is rare in late prose. Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 258) cites an inscription where βιαζομαι — biazomai is reflexive middle and used absolutely. Here the meaning clearly is that everyone forces his way into the kingdom of God, a plea for moral enthusiasm and spiritual passion and energy that some today affect to despise. [source]
Presseth []
Rev., entereth violently. See on Matthew 11:12. Wyc., maketh violence into it. Tynd., striveth to go in. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 16:16

Matthew 11:12 Suffereth violence [βιαζεται]
This verb occurs only here and in Luke 16:16 in the N.T. It seems to be middle in Luke and Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 258) quotes an inscription “where βιαζομαι — biazomai is without doubt reflexive and absolute” as in Luke 16:16. But there are numerous papyri examples where it is passive (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, etc.) so that “there seems little that promises decisive help for the difficult Logion of Matthew 11:12; Luke 16:16.” So then in Matthew 11:12 the form can be either middle or passive and either makes sense, though a different sense. The passive idea is that the kingdom is forced, is stormed, is taken by men of violence like “men of violence take it by force” These difficult words of Jesus mean that the preaching of John “had led to a violent and impetuous thronging to gather round Jesus and his disciples” (Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 26). [source]
Luke 6:20 Kingdom of God [ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ]
Matthew has kingdom of heaven, or of the heavens ( τῶν οὐρανῶν )a phrase used by him only, and most frequently employed by Christ himself to describe the kingdom; though Matthew also uses, less frequently, kingdom of God. The two are substantially equivalent terms, though the pre-eminent title was kingdom of God, since it was expected to be fully realized in the Messianic era, when God should take upon himself the kingdom by a visible representative. Compare Isaiah 40:9, “Behold your God. ” The phrase kingdom of Heaven was common in the Rabbinical writings, and had a double signification: the historical kingdom and the spiritual and moral kingdom. They very often understood by it divine worship; adoration of God; the sum of religious duties; but also the Messianic kingdom. The kingdom of God is, essentially, the absolute dominion of God in the universe, both in a physical and a spiritual sense. It is “an organic commonwealth which has the principle of its existence in the will of God” (Tholuck). It was foreshadowed in the Jewish theocracy. The idea of the kingdom advanced toward clearer definition from Jacob's prophecy of the Prince out of Judah (Genesis 49:10), through David's prophecy of the everlasting kingdom and the king of righteousness and peace (Daniel 7:14-27; Daniel 4:25; Daniel 2:44). In this sense it was apprehended by John the Baptist. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
The ideal kingdom is to be realized in the absolute rule of the eternal Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things are made and consist (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16-20), whose life of perfect obedience to God and whose sacrificial offering of love upon the cross reveal to men their true relation to God, and whose spirit works to bring them into this relation. The ultimate idea of the kingdom is that of “a redeemed humanity, with its divinely revealed destiny manifesting itself in a religious communion, or the Church; asocial communion, or the state; and an aesthetic communion, expressing itself in forms of knowledge and art.”-DIVIDER-
This kingdom is both present (Matthew 11:12; Matthew 12:28; Matthew 16:19; Luke 11:20; Luke 16:16; Luke 17:21; see, also, the parables of the Sower, the Tares, the Leaven, and the Drag-net; and compare the expression “theirs, or yours, is the kingdom,” Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20) and future (Daniel 7:27; Matthew 13:43; Matthew 19:28; Matthew 25:34; Matthew 26:29; Mark 9:47; 2 Peter 1:11; 1 Corinthians 6:9; Revelation 20:1-15 sq.). As a present kingdom it is incomplete and in process of development. It is expanding in society like the grain of mustard seed (Matthew 13:31, Matthew 13:32); working toward the pervasion of society like the leaven in the lump (Matthew 13:33). God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and the Gospel of Christ is the great instrument in that process (2 Corinthians 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:20). The kingdom develops from within outward under the power of its essential divine energy and law of growth, which insures its progress and final triumph against all obstacles. Similarly, its work in reconciling and subjecting the world to God begins at the fountain-head of man's life, by implanting in his heart its own divine potency, and thus giving a divine impulse and direction to the whole man, rather than by moulding him from without by a moral code. The law is written in his heart. In like manner the State and the Church are shaped, not by external pressure, like the Roman empire and the Roxnish hierarchy, but by the evolution of holy character in men. The kingdom of God in its present development is not identical with the Church. It is a larger movement which includes the Church. The Church is identified with the kingdom to the degree in which it is under the power of the spirit of Christ. “As the Old Testament kingdom of God was perfected and completed when it ceased to be external, and became internal by being enthroned in the heart, so, on the other hand, the perfection of the New Testament kingdom will consist in its complete incarnation and externalization; that is, when it shall attain an outward manifestation, adequately expressing, exactly corresponding to its internal principle” (Tholuck). The consummation is described in Revelation 21,22. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

Romans 10:4 The end of the law [τελος νομου]
Christ put a stop to the law as a means of salvation (Romans 6:14; Romans 9:31; Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 2:14) as in Luke 16:16. Christ is the goal or aim of the law (Galatians 3:24). Christ is the fulfilment of the law (Matthew 5:17; Romans 13:10; 1 Timothy 1:5). But here (Denney) Paul‘s main idea is that Christ ended the law as a method of salvation for “every one that believeth” whether Jew or Gentile. Christ wrote finis on law as a means of grace. [source]

What do the individual words in Luke 16:16 mean?

The law and the prophets [were] until John from that time the kingdom - of God is proclaimed everyone into it forces his way
νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται μέχρι Ἰωάννου ἀπὸ τότε βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ εὐαγγελίζεται πᾶς εἰς αὐτὴν βιάζεται

νόμος  law 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: νόμος  
Sense: anything established, anything received by usage, a custom, a law, a command.
προφῆται  prophets  [were] 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: προφήτης  
Sense: in Greek writings, an interpreter of oracles or of other hidden things.
μέχρι  until 
Parse: Preposition
Root: μέχρι 
Sense: as far as, until.
Ἰωάννου  John 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: Ἰωάννης 
Sense: John the Baptist was the son of Zacharias and Elisabeth, the forerunner of Christ.
τότε  that  time 
Parse: Adverb
Root: τότε  
Sense: then.
βασιλεία  kingdom 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: βασιλεία  
Sense: royal power, kingship, dominion, rule.
τοῦ  - 
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
Θεοῦ  of  God 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: θεός  
Sense: a god or goddess, a general name of deities or divinities.
εὐαγγελίζεται  is  proclaimed 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle or Passive, 3rd Person Singular
Root: εὐαγγελίζω  
Sense: to bring good news, to announce glad tidings.
πᾶς  everyone 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: πᾶς  
Sense: individually.
εἰς  into 
Parse: Preposition
Root: εἰς  
Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among.
βιάζεται  forces  his  way 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle, 3rd Person Singular
Root: βιάζω  
Sense: to use force, to apply force.