What Does Luke 7:49 Mean in the King James?
And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?
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 question turns forgiveness into a revelation: releasing what a person has missed exposes who has authority over them.
THE MEANING
The question still rises whenever what you have missed is treated as a claim that cannot be lifted: who can release it? This verse puts the force of that question on identity and authority, because the one who lets go of the charge changes what can be said about the person. Your missing does not have to remain the final word over you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The things you miss permanently define your nature and can never be released.
THE ROOT
ἀφίησιν
aphiēsin
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apo, away) + ἵημι (hiēmi, send or let go)
To send away, let go, or leave; by extension, to remit or forgive.
“forgiveth” in this verse is aphiēsin. The Greek verb names an act of letting go or sending away. Its noun ἄφεσις is also used for release from captivity, so forgiveness and liberation share one image.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission, deliverance.
ἄφεσις
In Luke 4:18, this same noun is translated both “deliverance” and “liberty,” linking the release of a charge with release from captivity.
aphentes: Having let go or left behind.
ἀφέντες
Matthew 4:20 uses this form for the disciples who “left” their nets, showing the same verb can describe a concrete act of letting go.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartias
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss, err, or go wrong.
The word translated “sins” names what is missed or has gone wrong; it does not have to become a permanent identity. The question is whether the missing can be released, so the person is no longer collapsed into it.
ALSO GROWS
hamartēma: An act of missing or a wrong.
ἁμάρτημα
This branch names the act itself, keeping attention on what went wrong rather than making it the whole person.
hamartōlos: A wrongdoer, one characterized by missing.
ἁμαρτωλός
This branch can label a person by the missing; the release in this verse opens the possibility that the label does not have the final word.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, release sends away what binds a person, whether it is captivity or the burden of missing.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.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,Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.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.Luke 5:24 answers the question with the same verb, ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, release or forgive): the Son of Man has authority on earth to do this. What sounds like an invisible release is placed beside a person rising, carrying his couch, and going home.
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