What Does Luke 11:4 Mean in the King James?
And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
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 same Greek verb is used twice: you ask to be released from your own missing, then name the release you extend to anyone who owes you.
THE MEANING
Your own missing and the debts others owe you are held within one request for release. You also ask not to be led into testing and to be rescued from evil. The prayer joins release with protection and deliverance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your own release is separate from the release of those whose debts you hold.
THE ROOT
ἄφες
áphes
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apó) + ἵημι (híēmi)
To send away or let go; by extension, to leave, remit, or forgive.
“forgive” in this verse is áphes. The verb appears first as ἄφες (áphes, release) and again as ἀφίομεν (aphíomen, we release). English gives it different objects, sins and debtors, but the repeated verb places both within the same movement of letting go.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, remission, or letting go.
ἄφεσις
In Luke 4:18, this same word family names release for captives, showing how the language of forgiveness also opens toward freedom.
aphíomen: We release, let go, or forgive.
ἀφίομεν
This is the verb’s second appearance in the verse, applied to the people who owe you.
ὀφείλοντι
opheílonti
GROWS FROM
ὀφειλ-
opheil-
To owe or be under an obligation.
“indebted” in this verse is opheílonti. The phrase pictures another person as owing you. Beside the preceding word for sins, that concrete debt makes the request for release relational: what you ask for yourself is paired with what you let go in another.
ALSO GROWS
opheílō: To owe or be obligated.
ὀφείλω
This is the verb behind “indebted” and makes the debt image explicit.
opheílēma: A debt or something owed.
ὀφείλημα
This noun appears in Matthew 6:12, where the prayer speaks of debts alongside the act of forgiving.
opheilétēs: A debtor, one who owes.
ὀφειλέτης
The debtor is not an abstraction here: the prayer names the person whose claim you release.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartías
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss or fail to reach.
“sins” in this verse is hamartías. The word carries the sense of missing, but the verse does not treat the missing as harmless: it places it within a plea for release. The next clause makes that release visible through the language of debts owed by others.
ALSO GROWS
hamartánō: To miss, fail, or do wrong.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb shows the action beneath the noun translated “sins.”
hamártēma: A mistake, failure, or wrong act.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun keeps the focus on a particular missing rather than an abstract label.
THE PATTERN
Release lifts the claim held against someone and loosens the burden that keeps them bound.
And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.THE THREAD
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,Luke 11:4 uses ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, release) for forgiving, while Luke 4:18 uses ἄφεσις (áphesis, release) for deliverance to captives. The same word family reaches from letting go of a debt to freedom from captivity.
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