What Does Luke 1:13 Mean?
But the messenger said to him, Do not be seized by awe, Zacharias, for your need has been heard and answered; and your wife Elisabeth will bring forth a son for you, and you will call his name John.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.THE KEY
The answer begins with being heard: the Greek says the prayer is heeded before the promised son is even named.
THE MEANING
Your waiting can hold an answer before you can see its shape: the prayer is heard, then a child is promised. The promise arrives as a particular life, called by name. Fear stands in the same moment as assurance, without having to be pretended away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a quiet or delayed answer proves your prayer has gone unheard.
THE ROOT
εἰσηκούσθη
eisēkousthē
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
To hear, listen, or give heed.
“has been heard and answered” in this verse is eisēkousthē. The verb is a form of εἰσακούω (eisakouō), a compound built on the Greek hearing-root ἀκου- (akou-). Here the prayer is not merely sound in the air: it is heard with heed, while its visible answer is still ahead.
ALSO GROWS
akouō: Hear, listen.
ἀκούω
The base verb beneath “is heard” makes listening the seed of the announcement.
akoē: Hearing; what is heard or reported.
ἀκοή
This related form carries hearing from the act of listening into what reaches the hearer.
eisakouō: Hear, heed, hear favorably.
εἰσακούω
This is the compound verb whose passive form says the prayer has been heard.
φοβοῦ
phobou
GROWS FROM
φοβ-
phob-
The Greek stem for fear or dread.
“Do not be seized by awe” in this verse is phobou. The command “Fear not” uses the same stem that names fear itself; the text meets fear directly rather than pretending it is absent. It places that fear beside the assurance that the petition is heard, while its outcome is still unfolding.
ALSO GROWS
phobos: Fear, dread.
φόβος
The noun names the feeling that the command addresses.
phobeomai: To fear, be afraid.
φοβέομαι
This verb shares the stem of φοβοῦ (phobou), the form spoken to Zacharias.
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνομα-
onoma-
Name; the identifying nature carried in a name.
The Greek word for “name” introduces John as more than an unnamed outcome to a prayer. Ἰωάννης (Iōannēs) reflects Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yohanan), “YHWH has shown favor,” so the name carries the nature of the answer into the life that is promised.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name, call by name.
ὀνομάζω
This related form joins the name itself to the act of naming.
onomastos: Named, renowned.
ὀνομαστός
This form shows how a name identifies the one who bears it.
THE PATTERN
A promised child turns an unseen answer into a named life whose name carries the moment’s meaning.
When the days had come around, Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, the asked-for one, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.THE THREAD
And he asked for a small tablet, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they all marveled.Luke repeats the Greek noun ὄνομα (onoma), moving from the promised name to the written name after the child’s birth. Ἰωάννης (Iōannēs) reflects Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yohanan), “YHWH has shown favor,” so the name puts the announcement’s favor into a life.
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