I don't get this passage in the Bible. Can anyone explain it to me?

Question

Luke 14:2626

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

Answer 1

Skeptics who really want to give Jesus a black eye are fond of quoting this verse,

The subject here is the word for hate, which is the Greek miseo. Dan Barker is typical of critics when he writes:

Most Christians feel obligated to soften the face meaning of the word 'hate' to something like 'love less than me,' even though the Greek word miseo means 'hate.'
In line with this comment, skeptics will stress the meaning of the word "hate" and insist that the word must be read literally, and that Jesus is truly preaching hate. But in fact, the "softening" is correct to do -- and is perfectly in line with the context of the ancient world, and the Jewish culture in particular.

For a background on the use of extreme and hyperbolic language in the Bible, I direct the reader first to my foundational essay on this subject. Abraham Rihbany (The Syrian Christ, 98f) points to the use of "hate" in the Bible as an example of linguistic extreme in an Eastern culture. There is no word, he notes, for "like" in the Arabic tongue. "...[T]o us Orientals the only word which can express and cordial inclination of approval is 'love'." The word is used even of casual acquaintances. Extreme language is used to express even moderate relationships.

Luke 14:26 falls into a category of "extreme language," the language of absoluteness used to express a preference, and may refer to disattachment, indifference, or nonattachment without any feelings of revulsion involved. To seal this matter completely, let's look at some parallel materials which prove our point. The closest example comes from Genesis 29:30-1:

And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
Here, "hated" is clearly used synonymously with one who is loved less. Let it be added that if Jacob hated Leah in a literal way, it is hardly believable that he would consent to take her as his wife at all! (See also Judges 14:16 and Deut. 21:15-17.)

Now here is another example from Jesus, Luke 16:13:

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Such extremes of feeling would be atypical, but the extremes are not meant to be taken literally; the point is that one master will get more dedicated labor than the other. Now let's move into some secular works with the same sort of hyperbolic language. Fitzmeyer's Lukan commentary offers this example from Poimandes 4:6:

If you do not hate your body first, O child, you will not be able to love yourself.
Would critics suppose that this teaches literal hatred of the physical body? It does not -- it emphasizes the need to give preference to the whole self before the body alone. Literal hate of the body would have us cutting it with razors or hitting it with blunt objects -- an extreme practiced in some Eastern faiths, but not among the Greeks! Here is another example from a war song in the Poetae Lyrici Graeci (see James Denney, "The Word 'Hate' in Lk. 14:26," Expository Times 21, 41-42): it is said that in battle, men "must count his own life his enemy for the honor of Sparta" -- is this a literal hatred of one's own life being taught? No! It is emphasizing the need to make one's life secondary for Sparta's sake. Here's a final example from Epictetus 3.3.5: "The good is preferable to every intimate relation." This is just a more abstract version of Luke 14:26!

Bottom line -- skeptics who think that Jesus is preaching literal and misogynist hate in this verse are doing no more than the usual -- thinking out of time, out of mind with the text, and in some cases (like Barker and C. Dennis McKinsey) letting their own "hate" get in the way of reading the text any way other than with wooden literalism.

Answer 2

John a million:3 while God create , He made some thing from no longer something; for we are His created beings. We in basic terms exist through fact God made us. Jesus Christ is God; Deity is the only explanation for all that Jesus replaced into,and all that Jesus did. Jesus replaced into pre-existent with the father. [ John a million:a million-3; 17:5; Colossians a million:17] Jesus replaced into replaced into sinless, as in basic terms God could be [ John 8:40 six; a million Peter 2:21-22]

Answer 3

I really wouldn't worry too much about trying to understand it as it is written. Remeber, the bible was compiled from many diefferent scriptures, in many different languages. Even when it was settled on in the original greek, it has since then been translated and re-translated (sometimes with agendas) so much that is foolish to try and interpret it literally word for word.

Answer 4

Unfortunately I have to agree with the other answers, however what I don't agree with is the actual passage itself - B.S. If anyone of these people in this passage were actually real, I would have said "Screw off, I like my life, I don't need to follow yours."

Answer 5

Jesus spoke these words when He was busy choosing His original 12 disciples. He was saying that they must be willing to surrender all else in their lives if they wished to follow Him. AND THEY DID!

1Jo 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Answer 6

Not hate as in despise or loathe. It means love to a lesser degree. So, if our family is discouraging us from spiritual pursuits, for example, our love for Christ and God should be greater than our love for our family and we should make sure we "seek the kingdom first." Matthew 6:33

Answer 7

You read it wrong......Whoever comes to me and does hate import beer and corn dogs, booze and Rock n' roll, drugs and sex, yes, and even bondage itself, cannot be my disciple.

Answer 8

Here hate means to love less. Our love for Jesus must be greater even than our strongest human ties. We must value Him more than life itself.

Answer 9

It says who does hate.

Answer 10

The word "hate" in the Greek, means "love less".
{Fish} got it right.
{Jenny} got it right.

G3404
μισέω
miseō
mis-eh'-o
From a primary word μῖσος misos (hatred); to detest (especially to persecute); by extension to love less: - hate (-ful).