What Does John 18:39 Mean?
But you have a custom, that I release one to you at the Passover. Do you want me to release the king of the Judeans to you?
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
But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?THE KEY
Pilate makes the King’s release a public choice, showing that the power to release someone is not the same as the power to rule.
THE MEANING
An authority can hold someone and make their release sound like a favor, even while calling that captive a king. Here, freedom is placed in a question for the crowd, exposing how custom can make coercion seem ordinary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an offered choice proves a just choice: Pilate still controls the terms of release, and the crowd is asked to accept them.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύσω
apolysō
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loosen, untie, or release.
Pilate’s word, ἀπολύσω (apolysō), means to release or send away and carries the seed λύω (lyō), to loosen. The root makes release an unbinding, while the verse shows how that unbinding can be held out as a ruler’s discretionary offer.
ALSO GROWS
apolysis: Release or dismissal.
ἀπόλυσις
This noun keeps the same sense of sending away or loosening from restraint that Pilate puts into the question.
lytron: Ransom; a price paid for release.
λύτρον
This branch links release with the loosening of a captive, sharpening the question of who holds the power to set someone free.
THE PATTERN
Release exposes whether power loosens its grip on the captive or merely offers freedom on its own terms.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.THE THREAD
God raised him up, having loosed the labor pangs of death, for it was not possible for him to be held by it.The Greek verb translated “loosed” comes from the same root, λύω (lyō), as Pilate’s word for “release.” The shared root opens a deeper sense of release as unbinding what holds someone captive.
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