What Does Luke 13:11 Mean in the King James?
And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
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
Her inability to rise is named plainly, without being mistaken for unwillingness.
THE MEANING
A condition can hold a body bent for years, beyond its own strength to straighten. The verse speaks plainly about that limit: she cannot lift herself. The inability is real; it is not presented as a failure of effort.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a person’s inability to rise proves a lack of effort: the verse says she cannot lift herself.
THE ROOT
ἀσθένεια
astheneia
GROWS FROM
σθεν-
sthen-
Strength; the prefix a- makes astheneia a state of lacking strength.
“infirmity” in this verse is astheneia. The Greek word names weakness as an absence of strength, and the verse makes that concrete: she cannot lift herself. The language describes her limitation without turning it into a failure of will.
ALSO GROWS
asthenēs: weak, without strength
ἀσθενής
It shares the same word family and makes clear that infirmity describes a condition of diminished strength.
astheneō: to be weak or without strength
ἀσθενέω
This verb carries the same root into an experience: the inability the verse describes is a state, not a choice.
sthenos: strength
σθένος
The root names the strength that astheneia lacks, illuminating why she cannot raise herself.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
Breath or blowing, from πνέω (pneō), to breathe or blow.
The Greek word translated “spirit” also carries the sense of breath. English can separate spirit from bodily life, but the verse places pneuma beside a body bent by infirmity, keeping the inner affliction and its bodily effect in the same picture.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: to breathe or blow
πνέω
This verb is the source of the word family and shows the breath sense within pneuma.
pnoē: breath or blowing
πνοή
This related noun makes the shared breath language visible beneath the English rendering “spirit.”
THE PATTERN
Scripture names bodily helplessness plainly and shows the LORD raising or restoring those who are bowed down.
The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.And Peter said unto him, Æneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.THE THREAD
And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.“Infirmity” translates the same Greek word, ἀσθένεια (astheneia), in both verses. Here the word names what has bent her; in the next verse, Jesus says she is loosed from that very infirmity, making the release specific.
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