Five-minute study · Day 246 · Luke 14
Luke 14:26
A word worth stopping on: hate μισέω miseo
'If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.' The word 'hate' is miseo. In English, the sentence sounds like Jesus is commanding emotional hostility toward your family. He is doing something else entirely. Miseo in Semitic usage means to love less, to place second. Genesis 29:31 says Leah was 'hated,' but the context makes clear that Jacob loved Leah less than Rachel. The word operates on a scale of preference. Jesus was using hyperbolic contrast, a standard technique in rabbinic teaching, to establish the absolute priority of discipleship.
Word study: hate
- Greek
- μισέω
- Pronounced
- miseo
- Strong's
- G3404
- Definition
- To hate, to detest, to love less, to regard with less affection. In Semitic idiom, miseo/sane' functions as a comparative: to love less than something else, to give lower priority to. The word operates on a spectrum from active hostility to relative preference, depending on context.
Miseo appears 40 times in the New Testament. BDAG defines it as 'to have a strong aversion to, to hate, to detest' and notes the Semitic background where the word functions as a comparative: 'to be disinclined to, to disfavor, to love less.' The dual meaning is essential for interpreting Luke 14:26.
Bock's commentary on Luke 9:51-24:53 in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament provides the key interpretive framework. The parallel passage in Matthew 10:37 clarifies the Lukan form: 'He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.' Matthew uses comparative language ('more than me') where Luke uses miseo ('hate'). Both record the same teaching. Luke preserves the more Semitic, more rhetorically striking form. Matthew provides the interpretive key: the issue is comparative love, priority, order of allegiance.
The Old Testament background is decisive. Genesis 29:31: 'And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated (sane), he opened her womb.' The Hebrew sane is translated by miseo in the Septuagint. Jacob did not feel active hostility toward Leah. He loved Rachel more. Leah was 'hated' in the sense that she occupied second place in Jacob's affections. Deuteronomy 21:15 legislates for a man with 'two wives, one beloved, and another hated (sane).' The law assumes both wives are living in the same household. The 'hated' wife is the less preferred one.
Bock identifies Jesus' teaching method as hyperbolic contrast, a recognized feature of rabbinic pedagogy. Rabbis used extreme language to make a point memorable and unambiguous. The overstatement forces the listener to think. No one hearing Jesus would have concluded that he was commanding the violation of the fifth commandment ('Honour thy father and thy mother'). The overstatement demands that the listener identify the actual point: following Jesus requires that every other loyalty, including the most sacred human bonds, take second position.
The list in Luke 14:26 is comprehensive: father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and 'his own life also.' Jesus works through every possible competing loyalty, from parents to siblings to spouse to children to the self. Nothing is omitted. The claim is total. Discipleship is the first allegiance. Everything else, including self-preservation, is second.
Historical context · Jesus' ministry approximately AD 27-30; rabbinic teaching traditions spanning from the Second Temple period onward
Rabbinic Hyperbole and the Cost of Discipleship in First-Century Palestine
Luke 14:25-33 forms a unit on the cost of discipleship. Jesus is traveling toward Jerusalem (the 'travel narrative' of Luke 9:51-19:44), and 'great multitudes' are following him (14:25). The teaching on 'hating' family is addressed to these crowds, specifically to those who might follow without counting the cost. The two parables that follow (the man building a tower, 14:28-30; the king going to war, 14:31-32) both make the same point: calculate before you commit.
The rabbinic tradition used hyperbole as a standard pedagogical device. Mishnah Avot 1:1 instructs: 'Make a fence around the Torah.' The instruction is metaphorical; no one builds a physical fence around a scroll. The Talmud contains numerous examples of exaggerated language used to make a point vivid and memorable. Rabbi Akiva taught that 'even a light precept should be as dear to you as a weighty one' (Avot 2:1). The method was common: overstate to clarify, exaggerate to ensure the principle cannot be misunderstood or diluted.
Jesus employed this method frequently. 'If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out' (Matthew 5:29). 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God' (Matthew 19:24). 'If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove' (Matthew 17:20). In each case, the language is deliberately extreme. The audience is expected to recognize the hyperbole and extract the principle.
Bock notes that the social context of first-century Palestine makes the demand especially sharp. Family loyalty was the primary social bond. In a society without institutional safety nets, your family was your economic security, your legal protection, your social identity. To place anything above family was to risk social death. When Jesus demanded that discipleship supersede family allegiance, the demand was more costly than a modern Western audience can easily grasp. A first-century Jew who chose Jesus over family obligations risked losing inheritance, marriage prospects, community standing, and the network of mutual aid that family provided. The hyperbolic language matched the actual cost.
For reflection
The word miseo sounds alarming in English. Hate your father. Hate your mother. The Semitic idiom softens the sound but sharpens the point. The question is about order. What comes first? Jesus put it in family terms because family is the strongest competitor. You will never have a loyalty more powerful than the one you feel toward the people who raised you, or the people you are raising. That is precisely why Jesus named them. He was asking for first place in the one arena where first place is hardest to give. Think about your deepest loyalties. List them honestly. Where does following Jesus actually fall in that order?
Miseo: to love less, to place second. A Semitic idiom where 'hate' functions as a comparative. Genesis 29:31 uses the same word for Leah: loved less than Rachel.
Sources: BDAG; Bock, 'Luke 9:51-24:53' (BECNT)