What Does Luke 1:4 Mean in the King James?
That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Luke pictures certainty as secure footing: the teaching that has sounded into you becomes ground beneath your knowing.
THE MEANING
Your received teaching can settle into knowledge with firm footing. The words you have heard become something you recognize with steadiness now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you have been taught must remain uncertain: the verse presents it as something you can know securely.
THE ROOT
ἀσφάλειαν
asphaleian
GROWS FROM
ἀσφαλής (asphalēs) / σφάλλω (sphallō)
Firm, secure, not liable to fall. The word family connects ἀ- (a-, “without”) with σφάλλω (sphallō, “cause to stumble or fall”).
“Certainty” carries the image of footing that holds. The teaching gives the reader something secure to stand on.
ALSO GROWS
asphalēs: Secure, safe, firm.
ἀσφαλής
This adjective makes the firmness inside “certainty” visible: what is certain is safe from being toppled.
asphalōs: Securely, assuredly.
ἀσφαλῶς
The same family appears in Acts 2:36 as “assuredly,” joining secure footing with confident knowing.
sphallō: Cause to stumble or fall.
σφάλλω
This related verb reveals the image beneath the word: certainty is a condition where one is not made to fall.
κατηχήθης
katēchēthēs
GROWS FROM
κατηχέω (katēcheō), from κατά (kata, “down”) + ἠχέω (ēcheō, “sound, resound”)
Teach by spoken word; the formation carries the image of sound made to resound.
The word translated “instructed” comes from a family tied to sound and resounding. The verse moves from teaching that has reached your ears to knowledge that becomes steady within you.
ALSO GROWS
katēchēsis: Oral instruction or teaching.
κατήχησις
This related noun keeps the sense of teaching received through spoken words.
ēchos: Sound, noise.
ἦχος
Its connection to the sound-family lets “instructed” retain the echo of a message received and repeated.
ἐπιγνῷς
epignōs
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
Know, perceive; the word family carries knowing as recognition.
The verb is an inflected form of ἐπιγινώσκω (epiginōskō, “know, recognize”), from γινώσκω (ginōskō, “know, perceive”). It points toward recognition that brings the received words into clear perception.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: Knowledge.
γνῶσις
This noun shares the knowing-family and shows the movement from instruction into knowledge.
epignōsis: Recognition, full knowledge.
ἐπίγνωσις
This related form emphasizes knowing that has become recognition, the aim expressed in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Words received in trust become stable ground for knowing and hope.
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;THE THREAD
And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.Luke uses the same word family: ἀσφαλές (asphalēs, “the sure or certain thing”) names what the uproar prevents from being known. Where voices blur the scene, certainty is lost; in Luke 1:4, instruction gives the reader secure footing.
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