What Does Luke 24:21 Mean in the King James?
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
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
They describe the redeemer as one who should have acted while the scene places him beside them, so failed expectation can hide redemption already present.
THE MEANING
When hope is attached to one expected form of rescue, a moment that seems too late can feel like proof that nothing happened. “To day is the third day” gives that ache a deadline: the expected redemption appears to have passed. Yet the scene places the hoped-for redeemer within earshot, showing how present deliverance can remain unseen while disappointment speaks.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that if deliverance has not arrived in the form or time expected, it has failed.
THE ROOT
λυτροῦσθαι
lytrousthai
GROWS FROM
λυτρ-
lytr-
Ransom; release secured by ransom.
The KJV “redeemed” carries the sense of release through ransom: the held one is freed from what claims them. The travelers speak of that release as a failed expectation while the one they hope for is already near.
ALSO GROWS
lýtron: A ransom paid to set someone free.
λύτρον
This makes the release in “redeemed” more concrete: something that holds a person is answered by a price that frees them.
lýtrōsis: The act of ransoming or setting free.
λύτρωσις
This noun appears in the earlier song about redemption in Luke, connecting the travelers’ hope with a release already named in the Gospel.
apolýtrōsis: Release from captivity or a claim, by ransom.
ἀπολύτρωσις
The added prefix does not erase the ransom-root; it gives the idea of release a fuller sense of being brought out from what held someone.
ἠλπίζομεν
ēlpízomen
GROWS FROM
ἐλπ-
elp-
Hope or expectation directed toward what is anticipated.
The word rendered “trusted” means “we were hoping” or “we were expecting,” from ἐλπίζω (elpízō, hope or expect). Their sorrow turns on a future they pictured: the expected deliverance seems not to have come.
ALSO GROWS
elpís: Hope; what is anticipated.
ἐλπίς
The noun makes explicit the forward-looking expectation carried by “we trusted.”
elpizómena: Things being hoped for or expected.
ἐλπιζόμενα
This form in Hebrews 11:1 names the hoped-for things themselves, illuminating how the travelers’ expectation had a particular outcome in view.
THE PATTERN
Redemption is release from what holds a person or people in bondage.
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.THE THREAD
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,Luke 1:68 uses the same λυτρ- (lytr-, ransom and release) word family as “redeemed” here. The travelers speak as though that release has failed, while the Gospel’s earlier language ties redemption to God’s visitation among the people.
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