diff --git a/source/texk/web2c/luatexdir/lua/luainit.w b/source/texk/web2c/luatexdir/lua/luainit.w
index ff8a3f632508b5b3c70ea6881349984f60077690..54c34b34feaa602ce04dfde4bb995bc5702a64d2 100644
--- a/source/texk/web2c/luatexdir/lua/luainit.w
+++ b/source/texk/web2c/luatexdir/lua/luainit.w
@@ -1023,6 +1023,10 @@ void lua_initialize(int ac, char **av)
         }
         /* */
         init_tex_table(Luas);
+	if (lua_only) {
+	  if (load_luatex_core_lua(Luas))
+	    fprintf(stderr, "Error in execution of luatex-core.lua .\n");
+	}
         if (lua_pcall(Luas, 0, 0, 0)) {
             fprintf(stdout, "%s\n", lua_tostring(Luas, -1));
         lua_traceback(Luas);