What Does Luke 5:21 Mean in the King James?
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
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 verb rendered “forgive” means “send away,” making the question whether what has been missed can truly be released here.
THE MEANING
You hear a mind protecting a boundary: only God can release what has been missed. The live tension is whether God’s release can be present and visible here.
THE ROOT
ἀφεῖναι
apheinai
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apo, away) + ἵημι (hiēmi, send)
Send away, let go, leave behind.
The verb translated “forgive” carries the movement of sending away or letting go. The question asks who can enact that release; forgiveness appears as an unbinding movement, not merely a change of label.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission, forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This noun from the same word family names the state of being released.
aphietai: Is released, is forgiven; a form of ἀφίημι.
ἀφίεται
The same verb family makes release something that happens to a person, not only an idea about them.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartias
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
Miss, fail, go astray.
English “sins” can sound like a fixed category; hamartia carries the sense of missing or failing to reach a mark. Beside aphiemi, the sentence frames forgiveness as the release of what was missed, rather than a permanent identity.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss, fail, or do wrong.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb makes the “missing” quality of the noun visible as an action.
hamartēma: A misdeed, an act of missing or wrongdoing.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun points to a particular failure that can be released.
THE PATTERN
Release separates a person from what was missed, so the failure is no longer held as an unmovable debt.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.THE THREAD
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.The question here says release belongs to God; the next verse repeats the same verb, ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), and places that authority on earth. The man’s rising makes the unseen release visible.
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