saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’
Parallel translations
- WEB saying, ‘This man began to build, and wasn’t able to finish.’
- KJV Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
- NKJV saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?
- NASB saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’
- NLT They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Onlookers mock the man who began but could not finish building. Abandoned commitment to Christ invites shame.
Overview
The mockers' words drive home the embarrassment of unfinished work. Applied to discipleship, it warns of the dishonor of turning back from Christ. Jesus calls for a faith that endures rather than starts and stalls.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Heb 6:11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.
- 2 Jn 1:8Watch yourselves, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be fully rewarded.
- Heb 6:4–8It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
- 2 Pet 2:19–22They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
- Heb 10:38But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
- Acts 1:18–19(Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out.
- 1 Cor 3:11–14For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- Matt 27:3–8When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.
- Matt 7:27The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 14:30 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.