What Does Luke 1:21 Mean?
And the people were waiting for Zacharias, and they marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.
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 the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple.THE KEY
The verb for “tarried” grows from χρόνος (chronos), “time,” turning Zacharias’s delay into a collision between his duration and the crowd’s expectation.
THE MEANING
When your time in one place stretches beyond what others expect, their waiting can become wonder. This verse holds both sides together: Zacharias remains in the temple while the people wait and marvel. The delay is visible; its cause remains unspoken.
THE ROOT
χρονίζειν
chronizein
GROWS FROM
χρον-
chron-
The time stem from χρόνος (chronos), meaning “time” or “duration.”
“lingered” in this verse is chronizein. The verb carries the time-word inside it: Zacharias is spending time in the temple, while the people experience that duration as a wait. The text makes the length itself the point of wonder, without naming why he remains.
ALSO GROWS
chronos: Time; a span or duration.
χρόνος
This is the time-word within “tarried,” making the passing interval central to the verse.
chronizō: To spend time, linger, or delay.
χρονίζω
This verb names Zacharias’s prolonged stay and connects his time inside the temple to the people’s waiting.
chronios: Long-lasting; lasting over time.
χρόνιος
This related form echoes the verse’s emphasis on how long the interval feels to those waiting.
THE PATTERN
When one person’s time exceeds the expectation of those waiting, the interval itself becomes visible.
When the people saw that Moses lingered to come down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, Rise, make us gods who will go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we have not known what has come to him.While the bridegroom lingered, they all nodded and slept.To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Stretched toward the LORD, I wait and wait. He bends toward me and hears my cry.THE THREAD
For yet just a little, just a little, and the one coming will arrive and will not linger.Both verses use χρονίζω (chronizō), meaning “to linger” or “delay.” Luke makes the length of Zacharias’s stay felt through the crowd’s wait; Hebrews uses the same word to say that the awaited one will not delay.
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