What Does John 11:44 Mean?
The one who had died came out, his hands and feet bound in strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped his face. Jesus said to them, Untie him, and let him go.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.THE KEY
The command to release comes after life has already emerged: the bindings are what remain to be removed.
THE MEANING
A person can be alive and already coming forth while still bound by what belongs to death. The verse holds both facts at once: the emergence is real, and the wrappings still need to be removed. Release follows life; it does not manufacture it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that anyone still marked by death or bound by old wrappings must still be dead; here the person is already alive before the wrappings are gone.
THE ROOT
λύσατε
lýsate
GROWS FROM
λύω
lýō
To loosen, untie, or unbind.
The command is to untie the grave-clothes. The same root, λύω (lýō, loosen), can also describe release from restraint, so the word holds both the physical unbinding and the broader undoing of what holds someone in place.
ALSO GROWS
lýsis: Loosening, release.
λύσις
This noun makes explicit the release carried within the command to loosen.
apolýō: Release, dismiss.
ἀπολύω
This compound retains λύω (lýō, loosen), showing how unbinding can extend to releasing a person.
ἄφετε
áphēte
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
To send away, release, or leave; in some contexts, to forgive or remit.
“let him go” in this verse is áphēte. The second command uses ἄφετε (áphēte, release or let go), from ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, release or send away), the verb also used for forgiving debts. The sentence moves from untying the cloth to releasing the person, and its release language also reaches what English calls forgiveness.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, remission, forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This related noun carries release and forgiveness within one word family.
aphēken: Let go, released, or forgave; an inflected form of ἀφίημι (aphiēmi).
ἀφῆκεν
Matthew 18:27 uses this form for letting a debt go, linking release with forgiveness.
THE PATTERN
Living freedom becomes visible as restraints are removed and movement resumes.
He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?Then the Lord answered him, "Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath unbind his ox or his donkey from the trough, and lead it out and water it?"THE THREAD
Then the lord of that servant was stirred in his inward parts, and let him go, and released the debt.Matthew’s “loosed him” is ἀπέλυσεν (apélysen, released; from ἀπολύω, apolýō), and “forgave” is ἀφῆκεν (aphēken, let go; from ἀφίημι, aphíēmi). John pairs those same actions: unbind what confines, then release the person; Matthew applies the release language to a debt.
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