An Argument for Altar Calls: Part 3

Luke 8:41

Here are several different ways parakaleo is translated in Luke 8:41: “desiring” (BBE), “implore(d)” (ESV, NASU), “besought” (KJV, RSV), “entreat” (NASB), “plead…” (NET, NIV, NJB, NLT), and “begged” (NKJV, NRSV).

In Luke 8:41, parakaleo has zero denotation nor connotation of “coming” or “inviting,” that is the job that eiserchomai (“to come, enter”) employs. Every single translation correctly relays the concept of “asking for something earnestly” (see Louw & Nida, 33.168). However, Louw & Nida include Luke 8:41 under 33.315: “to ask a person to accept offered hospitality – ‘to invite.’” But parakaleo does not mean invite here, but simply to urge, implore, or even beg someone to do something. It just so happens that the urging is to “come,” but the “coming” is communicated by a different word: eiserchomai.

Therefore, there is nothing in the use of Luke 8:41 to justify translating parakaleo as “invite.”