What Does Luke 1:73 Mean in the King James?
The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
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
The oath binds God’s promise across generations, and “our father” draws the present into its reach.
THE MEANING
The oath to Abraham is named as a ground of shared inheritance reaching you now. Calling him “our father” places you within a promise carried across generations.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a promise made to another belongs only to them: “our father” names a shared inheritance that reaches you now.
THE ROOT
ὅρκον
horkon
GROWS FROM
ὁρκ-
The Greek stem ὁρκ- (hork-, “oath”) names a solemn pledge that binds a declaration.
English presents “oath” as a finished noun, while its Greek word family also names the act of placing someone under oath. The oath here carries the force of a binding commitment, not merely a spoken recollection.
ALSO GROWS
horkizō: To put under oath; to adjure.
ὁρκίζω
This verb shows the root’s active force: an oath binds a speaker to a declaration.
exorkizō: To exact an oath; to adjure solemnly.
ἐξορκίζω
This related verb makes the oath’s binding demand explicit, illuminating the weight of the pledge in the verse.
πατέρα
patera
GROWS FROM
πατρ-
The Greek stem πατρ- (patr-, “father”) also carries the sense of paternal lineage.
The Greek family around “father” reaches beyond one parent to family and inherited belonging. Calling Abraham “our father” places the oath within a lineage shared across generations.
ALSO GROWS
patria: Family, lineage, or kindred.
πατριά
This branch shows how fatherhood extends into a shared family line.
patrios: Ancestral; belonging to one’s fathers.
πάτριος
This branch connects the father-language to what is received across generations.
THE PATTERN
A sworn promise carries divine commitment from one generation into another.
And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,THE THREAD
For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.Luke names the oath God swears; Hebrews describes what an oath does: it confirms and brings dispute to an end. The shared Greek stem ὁρκ- (hork-, “oath”) makes that binding force audible in both verses.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us