---
title: Luke 7:35
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-7-35/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-7-35.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 7:35
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 7:35

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "All the same, wisdom is proved righteous by all its children."

## JW Usage

Luke 7:35 ("wisdom is proved righteous by all its children") is rarely engaged in JW publications. Where it appears, it is read as a generic principle that the validity of a teaching is demonstrated by the fruit it produces — applied externally to Christendom rather than internally to the Watchtower. The parallel use of dikaioō ("justify, vindicate, prove righteous") in this verse is not connected to the JW reading of James 2:24 ("justified by works and not by faith alone"), where the same Greek verb does similar demonstrative work.

## Protestant Usage

Luke 7:35 is the Synoptic counterpart to Matthew 11:19 ("wisdom is justified by her deeds") — a key New Testament use of dikaioō in the demonstrative sense rather than the courtroom sense. Wisdom is not declared legally righteous in a heavenly tribunal; wisdom is shown to be wise by what wisdom does. Pair with James 2:24 ("a person is justified by works and not by faith alone") to show that the same Greek verb can mean either "declared righteous in a courtroom" (Paul's usage in Romans 3-4) or "demonstrated to be righteous by visible evidence" (Jesus's usage here, James's usage in James 2). Recognising this lexical range is the key that lets Paul and James both be right because they are answering different questions: Paul asks how God declares a sinner righteous; James asks how others know whose faith is real. The Watchtower's flat reading of James 2:24 as proof that works contribute to justification before God collapses once the Synoptic uses of dikaioō are taken into account.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [James 2:22-24 — 'Not by Faith Alone'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/james2-22-completed-by-works.md) — eteleiōthē, pistei monon, and the vindication reading [Salvation]