The Fallible Study Bible

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Luke11:27–28

True Blessedness

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Luke 11:27–28 — True Blessedness. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

27

As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and blessed are the breasts that nursed You!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Egeneto en auton tō legein tauta tis gynē ek tou ochlou eparasa phōnēn eipen autō Makaria hē koilia hē bastasasa se kai mastoi hous ethēlasas

Word by word26 · parsed
δὲdeAsG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἘγένετοEgeneto. . .G1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be Luke's narrative formula “and it came to pass” (frequent in the Septuagint), framing the interruption as an event within the discourse.
ἐνen. . .G1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
αὐτὸνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
λέγεινlegeinwas sayingG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
legō: to say (present infinitive) The present infinitive with en tō marks simultaneity: she cries out while He is still speaking, so her praise answers the warning of 11:24 to 26.
ταῦταtautathese thingsG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
τιςtisaG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Feminine Singular
γυνὴgynēwomanG1135
√ γυνή — a womanNounNominative Feminine Singular
gynē: woman Anonymous, “a certain woman out of the crowd.” Ellicott notes the incident is peculiar to Luke, who repeatedly records the witness of women.
ἐκekinG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ὄχλουochloucrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐπάρασάeparasaraisedG1869
√ ἐπαίρω — to raise up (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Singular
epairō: to raise up (aorist participle) A relatively uncommon verb (19 vv in the Verifier's count) used by Luke for lifting voice (Acts 2:14; 14:11; 22:22) and eyes (Luke 6:20; John 6:5). The public volume matters: this is an acclamation over the crowd, not a private remark.
φωνὴνphōnēn[her] voiceG5456
√ φωνή — a tone (articulate, bestial or artificial)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
εἶπενeipen[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΜακαρίαMakariaBlessedG3107
√ μακάριος — supremely blestAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
makarios: supremely blest The beatitude word (49 vv). In Luke it has already been spoken over Mary by Elizabeth (Luke 1:45, “blessed is she who believed”), and Mary sang that “all generations shall call me blessed” (1:48, using the related verb). Ellicott and the Pulpit call this cry the first fulfilment of that line. The woman blesses by physical relation; Jesus will relocate the same word in v. 28.
ἡhē[is] theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
κοιλίαkoiliawombG2836
√ κοιλία — a cavity, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
koilia: womb, cavity Luke's word for the womb in the birth narrative (1:41, 1:44, the babe leaping in Elizabeth's womb; 1:42, “the fruit of thy womb”). The same word, paired with mastos, reappears inverted at Luke 23:29: “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.”
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
βαστάσασάbastasasathat boreG941
√ βαστάζω — to lift, literally or figuratively (endure, declare, sustain, receive, etcVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Feminine Singular
bastazō: to carry, bear Aorist participle, “the one having carried thee.” The verb of carrying a burden; here the bodily carrying of the child.
σεseYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
καὶkaiand [blessed are]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μαστοὶmastoi[the] breastsG3149
√ μαστός — a (properly, female) breast (as if kneaded up)NounNominative Masculine Plural
mastos: breast A rare word (3 vv in the Verifier's count): here, Luke 23:29, and Revelation 1:13 (the golden girdle about the paps of the Son of Man). Its Lukan pair (11:27 and 23:29) is a deliberate reversal from blessing to lament.
οὓςhousthatG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐθήλασαςethēlasasnursed YouG2337
√ θηλάζω — to suckle, (by implication) to suckVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
thēlazō: to suck, suckle Rare (5 vv). Elsewhere it marks the vulnerable nursing mothers of the coming judgment (Luke 21:23; Matthew 24:19; Mark 13:17) and the infants whose praise God perfects (Matthew 21:16). The 2nd person singular makes Jesus the one who sucked: a stark witness to the true humanity of the Son.
28

But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Autos eipen makarioi Menoun hoi akouontes ton logon tou Theou kai phylassontes

Word by word13 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΑὐτὸςAutosHeG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
autos: he, himself The emphatic nominative pronoun stands first: “but He,” setting His word against the crowd's.
εἶπενeipenrepliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
μακάριοιmakarioiBlessedG3107
√ μακάριος — supremely blestAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
makarios: supremely blest Jesus repeats her own word, now in the masculine plural. He does not cancel the beatitude but transfers its ground from relation in the flesh to relation through the word. Compare Luke 1:45, where Mary herself is called makaria for believing what was spoken to her.
ΜενοῦνMenounratherG3304
√ μενοῦνγε — so then at leastParticle
menounge: so then at least, nay rather A rare particle (3 vv in the Verifier's count, under the longer form menounge; at Romans 9:20 and 10:18 Paul uses it to correct or intensify). Its force here is debated: Gill and Barnes read “correcting her, though not denying”; some later interpreters press it as a stronger contradiction. ⚙ The context (no rebuke, a widened blessing) favours the corrective sense.
οἱhoi[are] those whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀκούοντεςakouonteshearG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
akouō: to hear Present participle: habitual hearers. In Luke hearing is never neutral (8:8, 8:18, “take heed therefore how ye hear”). Poole stresses that the blessed and the unblessed may hear together; hearing alone is not the blessing.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonwordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
logos: word, something said Ellicott takes “the word of God” here as the message of the kingdom spoken by Jesus Himself (as in the Sower, Luke 8:11, “the seed is the word of God”). Gill offers a second reading: the eternal Logos Himself. The articular phrase ton logon tou theou is Luke's standard term for the preached message (5:1; 8:11; 8:21).
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
theos: God Genitive of source: the word that comes from God. Jesus names His own teaching as God's word.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
φυλάσσοντεςphylassontesobey itG5442
√ φυλάσσω — to watch, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
phylassō: to guard, keep watch Used of keeping commandments (Luke 18:21, “all these have I kept”) and of guarding as a sentry. In the Septuagint it renders the Hebrew shamar of covenant keeping. Paired by one article with akouontes, it makes obedience the completion of hearing, as Cambridge says, citing Matthew 7:21 and Romans 2:13.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A cry from the crowd — Luke 11:27

The cry comes en tō legein, while Jesus is still speaking of the house swept and garnished and reoccupied (11:24 to 26). Gill places it right after He had confuted the charge of casting out demons by Beelzebul. Henry sets her against the Pharisees: “While the scribes and Pharisees despised and blasphemed,” this woman admired. Her words are a traditional form: Gill records a rabbinic parallel praising the mother of a teacher, and the Pulpit thinks she voiced “the popular feeling.” Ellicott and the Pulpit both note that this is the first recorded fulfilment of Mary's song, “all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Grammatically, the verb ἐθήλασας keeps Jesus as the subject: the breasts “which thou didst suck.” The Son of God was a nursing infant.

ii. Yea rather: the beatitude widened — Luke 11:28

Jesus answers with Μενοῦν, “yea rather,” and repeats her own word makarios, now in the open plural. Barnes: “Jesus admits that she was happy,” but “the chief happiness, the highest honor, was to obey the word of God.” Benson makes it sharp: had Mary herself not attended to this, “she would have forfeited all her blessedness.” Poole holds both truths: Mary is blessed, yet “her blessing did not so much lie” in bearing and nursing as in hearing and keeping. Cambridge, quoting Chrysostom, says the way of obedience is open to men and women alike. One article governs akouontes and phylassontes, so hearing and keeping are one character, not two options; Cambridge adds that hearing without obedience is “more than valueless.” Geneva gives the shortest gloss on the whole exchange: “Christ does not seek praise for himself, but in our salvation.”

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read on its own terms, the passage does not lower Mary; it shows where her blessedness came from. Luke has already called her makaria because she believed (1:45), and has shown her as the hearer who received the word (1:38) and treasured it (2:19, 2:51). So Jesus' answer does not set the hearers against His mother; it puts her among them and opens that blessing to everyone in the crowd. The tool's reading: no physical nearness to Christ, not even the closest human bond there is, saves by itself. What God blesses is the word heard and kept, and the keeping is the fruit of the hearing, not a second achievement added to it. This reading is offered to be tested against Luke 8:19 to 21, Romans 10:17 and James 1:22.

Not the womb that carried the Word, but the heart that keeps it.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The beatitude reversed: from blessing to lament on the road to the cross verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke alone pairs κοιλία and μαστός with makarios twice. Here a woman blesses the womb that bore Jesus and the breasts He sucked. At 23:29, on the way to Golgotha, Jesus tells the weeping daughters of Jerusalem that days are coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.” The blessing of motherhood is turned around by the coming judgment. The Verifier's rare-lexeme match (μαστός in only 3 verses) confirms the verbal link. ⚙ Luke seems to frame Jesus' ministry between a woman's beatitude and His own reversed beatitude for women.

Luke 23:29

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3149 μαστός (in 3 vv, rare), G2836 κοιλία (in 22 vv), G3107 μακάριος (in 49 vv); same author, inverted beatitude form

Woe to them that give suck structural / thematic: confirmed

The rare verb θηλάζω (5 verses) appears in the Olivet discourse: “woe unto them that give suck in those days” (Luke 21:23; Matthew 24:19; Mark 13:17). What the woman blesses here becomes a figure of vulnerability under judgment. The shared lexeme is real, but there is no quotation, so this is a word link inside a theme of judgment, not a claim that one passage cites the other.

Luke 21:23 · Matthew 24:19 · Mark 13:17

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2337 θηλάζω (in 5 vv); the word is rare, but the contexts differ (beatitude vs eschatological woe), so it is tiered thematic, not quotation

Hear the word of God and do it: the true family structural / thematic: confirmed

Cambridge cites Luke 8:21 as the parallel: when told His mother and brothers stood outside, Jesus answered, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.” Ellicott suggests that the two incidents may be closely related, perhaps even happening together (Matthew 12:46 to 50). Both scenes move the stress from blood kinship to hearing and doing the word. The Verifier finds shared λόγος and ἀκούω (both common), so the link is thematic and structural rather than a rare verbal one.

Luke 8:21 · Matthew 12:50

basis: Verifier pair check: shared G3056 λόγος (in 318 vv), G191 ἀκούω (in 398 vv), common lexemes; parallel cited by Cambridge and Ellicott

Blessed is she that believed structural / thematic: confirmed

Elizabeth's beatitude over Mary, “blessed is she that believed” (Luke 1:45), uses the same feminine makaria as the woman in 11:27. Elizabeth places Mary's blessedness in her faith in what the Lord had spoken. ⚙ Read with 11:28, Luke appears to answer the crowd's beatitude with his own earlier one: Mary was blessed in the way Jesus describes. Poole and JFB both recall Elizabeth's words here (citing 1:42).

Luke 1:45 · Luke 1:48

basis: Verifier pair check: shared G3107 μακάριος (in 49 vv), a moderately common word; the link is in the shared beatitude form and theme, recorded by Poole, JFB, Ellicott and the Pulpit

Menoun: the corrective particle in Paul structural / thematic: confirmed

The particle μενοῦν / μενοῦνγε occurs in only 3 verses in the Verifier's count. Paul uses it at Romans 9:20 (“Nay but, O man, who art thou”) and 10:18 (“Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth”), in both cases to correct or intensify. The shared rare particle helps show how the word works, but a function word does not create a theological allusion between passages, so the tier stays thematic.

Romans 9:20 · Romans 10:18

basis: Verifier: shared G3304 μενοῦνγε (in 3 vv, rare) plus G191 ἀκούω at Romans 10:18; rare but a particle, so offered for usage only, not as an allusion

The blessings of the breasts and of the womb structural / thematic: confirmed

Jacob's blessing of Joseph includes “blessings of the breasts, and of the womb” (Genesis 49:25), where fruitfulness is a sign of covenant favour. The woman's cry draws on that same Israelite instinct to locate blessing in fertility and lineage. Jesus' reply does not deny that blessing; it subordinates it to the word. This is a cross-Testament link (Hebrew and Greek), so it cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers; it is offered as a thematic parallel. The Verifier did not compute it, and no commentator in the brief cites it.

Genesis 49:25

basis: Cross-Testament motif (blessing of womb and breasts); no shared Strong's possible between Hebrew and Greek; not Verifier-computed, tool's own observation

Doers of the word, not hearers only structural / thematic: confirmed

Poole cites James 1:22 to 23: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Cambridge adds Matthew 7:21 and Romans 2:13. The single article joining hearing and keeping in v. 28 is the grammatical seed of that apostolic teaching. This is a parallel recorded by commentators, not a quotation.

James 1:22 · Matthew 7:21 · Romans 2:13

basis: Thematic parallel cited by Poole (James 1:22) and Cambridge (Matthew 7:21; Romans 2:13); not Verifier-computed, no rare shared lexeme claimed

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Son who sucked at the breast ancient/widely-held

⚙ The 2nd person singular ἐθήλασας, “which thou didst suck,” is a plain confession of the true humanity of the incarnate Word: He was carried in a womb and nursed as an infant. The woman's beatitude, without meaning to, testifies to the Incarnation that Luke 1 and 2 narrate (1:31; 2:7). Gill reads her words as “not so much in praise … of Mary, as in commendation of Christ.” The church has long confessed both the reality of His birth and that this birth was for our salvation, which Geneva states plainly: “Christ does not seek praise for himself, but in our salvation.”

Luke 2:7 · Galatians 4:4 · John 1:14

A family made by the word ancient/widely-held

Jesus turns from kinship in the flesh to a new family formed by hearing and keeping God's word (Luke 8:21; Mark 3:35). Cambridge sees here His consistent refusal to exalt “the merely human relationship,” pointing forward to the Spirit's presence as “a nearer and more blessed thing” (John 14:16; 2 Corinthians 5:16). The redemptive-historical line runs from Israel's blessing by lineage (Genesis 49:25) to the people of God gathered by the word of Christ. Chrysostom, quoted by Cambridge and the Pulpit, says that men as well as women may walk this “wide way.”

Luke 8:21 · Mark 3:35 · 2 Corinthians 5:16

Hearing the Word who is the Word novel

Gill offers a further reading: “the word of God” may mean Christ Himself, “the eternal Logos,” received and “formed in the heart.” ⚙ This is a minority reading of this verse (Ellicott and Cambridge take logos as the spoken message), but it fits the wider New Testament witness that the message and the Messenger cannot be separated (John 1:1, 14; Revelation 19:13). It is offered here as a possibility, not as the plain sense.

John 1:1 · John 1:14 · Revelation 19:13

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The interlinear lists μακάριοι before Μενοῦν; standard critical editions print Μενοῦν μακάριοι. The interlinear index order may follow English word order, so no point is made here from word position. The brief tags the particle under G3304 menounge, while Luke has the shorter menoun; the frequency (3 vv) belongs to that Strong's entry.

Sources. Poole's comment for v. 28 is only a cross-reference, so his comment is cited at v. 27. JFB includes anti-Roman polemic that is not quoted. The Pulpit's guess that the woman had been healed, and Ellicott's suggestion that this incident matches Matthew 12:46 to 50, are conjecture. The Chrysostom quotation comes second-hand through Cambridge and the Pulpit.

Threads. The Luke 1:45, Luke 8:21 and Romans links were checked with the Verifier and share only common lexemes or a particle, so they are tiered thematic. The Genesis 49:25 and James 1:22 links are not Verifier-computed. The force of menoun (correction or contradiction) is debated; this synthesis follows the corrective reading of Gill, Barnes and JFB.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)