What Does Luke 8:56 Mean in the King James?
And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was 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
The Greek word for the parents’ astonishment shares its root of “standing” with the word for resurrection: wonder and rising have a verbal ground in common.
THE MEANING
You can find yourself outside your familiar frame when life stands where you thought only death remained. The parents are astonished, and Jesus tells them to keep the event from public telling.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A wonder does not become true only when its witnesses announce it; here the parents are astonished while the telling is restrained.
THE ROOT
ἐξέστησαν
exestēsan
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
to stand, set in place
“astonished” in this verse is exestēsan. The verb existēmi joins “out” to histēmi, “stand”: astonishment is being stood outside your usual place. Its wider word family includes anastasis, “resurrection,” a standing up, so the parents’ wonder and the girl’s rising share a root.
ALSO GROWS
ekstasis: displacement; astonishment
ἔκστασις
This noun from existēmi preserves the sense of being moved outside one’s usual frame.
anastasis: resurrection; a rising
ἀνάστασις
Built on the same histēmi root, it names a standing up, the movement at the heart of the scene.
τὸ γεγονός
to gegonos
GROWS FROM
γίνομαι
ginomai
to come into being, become, happen
“what was done” in this verse is to gegonos. The phrase calls the event “what has come to be.” The nearby word for “parents,” goneis, belongs to the same birth and becoming family: the ones through whom life comes and the event that has come to pass stand side by side.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: origin; coming into being
γένεσις
It makes the sense of “what has come to be” visible in the English word “genesis.”
goneus: parent; begetter
γονεύς
From the related birth and begetting family, it echoes the verse’s word for “parents” beside “what has come to be.”
THE PATTERN
What is witnessed does not always move into public speech; Scripture gives silence a place beside what has been seen.
And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;THE THREAD
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.“Astonished” is the same Greek verb, existēmi, used for the parents here. In both scenes, encountering what exceeds expectation is described as being stood outside one’s usual place.
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