Luke 14:18

But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — Jesus tells a parable to a dinner guest about a host who prepares a banquet and dispatches a servant to summon the invited. When the servant announces that the feast is ready, the invited guests respond with refusals.

The words — The Greek παραιτεῖσθαι (paraiteisthai) literally means to excuse oneself, while πρῶτος (prōtos) identifies the first guest to act. These terms frame the refusal as a deliberate withdrawal from a formal obligation.

The thread — The rejected summons continues at Luke 14:19 with a second guest declining over oxen. The motif of ignored divine calls and competing earthly claims echoes the warning patterns in Luke 17:26 and the economic dangers outlined in 1 Timothy 6:9.

Why it lands — The text records guests prioritizing property and livestock over a direct summons. It requires the reader to evaluate whether personal acquisitions are being elevated above a declared authority.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

Cross-references

Luke 17:26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:
Luke 18:24 Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
1 Timothy 6:9 Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
Isaiah 28:12 to whom He has said: “This is the place of rest, let the weary rest; this is the place of repose.” But they would not listen.
Isaiah 29:11 And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”
Jeremiah 5:4 Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.
Jeremiah 6:10 To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the LORD has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.
Matthew 24:38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
Luke 8:14 The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.
John 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.