What Does Luke 1:14 Mean?
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
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
And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.THE KEY
The Greek ties “joy” and “rejoice” to one root, so joy is not only felt here, it moves outward among many.
THE MEANING
A life arriving can bring gladness beyond the household that welcomes it. The verse presents joy as something shared, before the child has achieved or proved anything.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that joy must be earned through achievement: here, many rejoice simply because a child is born.
THE ROOT
χαρά
chara
GROWS FROM
χαιρ- (from χαίρω, chairō)
to rejoice, be glad
“joy / rejoice” in this verse is chara. English gives “joy” and “rejoice” different forms, but Greek χαρά (chara, joy) and χαρήσονται (charēsontai, they will rejoice) belong to the same word family. The root links the inward gladness to its outward expression, while “many” shows that expression spreading among people.
ALSO GROWS
chairō: to rejoice, be glad
χαίρω
The verb behind both the joy and the rejoicing in this verse joins the feeling to its expression.
synchairō: to rejoice with
συγχαίρω
The same root with “together” added appears when people share another’s joy, as in Luke 1:58.
chara: joy
χαρά
This noun names the joy that the related verb expresses as rejoicing.
THE PATTERN
Joy at new life or release can emerge through hardship and become shared recognition.
Those who sow in tears reap in a ringing cry.And her neighbors and her kin heard how the LORD had made great his faithful love toward her, and they rejoiced with her.A woman, when she brings forth, has pain, because her hour has come. But when she has borne the child, she no longer remembers the pressure, for the joy that a human has been brought forth into the world.THE THREAD
A woman, when she brings forth, has pain, because her hour has come. But when she has borne the child, she no longer remembers the pressure, for the joy that a human has been brought forth into the world.The word “joy” here is χαρά (chara, joy), the same Greek word family as χαρά in Luke 1:14. Both verses join birth to joy, while John’s image shows that joy can follow a passage of anguish.
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