What Does Luke 1:29 Mean?
And when she saw him, she was shaken by his word, and reckoned through what kind of greeting this might be.
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 when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.THE KEY
The salutation that deeply unsettles Mary belongs to the same Greek word-family as an embrace: a welcome can arrive before it feels comprehensible.
THE MEANING
A welcome reaches Mary before she can make sense of it: its words deeply unsettle her, and she turns them over to discern what kind of greeting this is. The verse holds agitation and careful thought in the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the assumption that a true welcome must feel immediately reassuring.
THE ROOT
ἀσπασμός
aspasmos
GROWS FROM
ἀσπάζομαι
aspazomai
To greet, welcome, or embrace.
The English salutation can sound like a formula, but this word belongs to a family whose verb can mean both greeting and embracing. Mary is unsettled by a welcome whose full nature she has not yet grasped.
ALSO GROWS
aspazomai: Greet or welcome.
ἀσπάζομαι
Mary uses this verb to greet Elisabeth in Luke 1:40, showing the noun here belongs to an enacted welcome.
aspazomai: Embrace.
ἀσπάζομαι
Hebrews 11:13 uses the same verb for embracing the promises; the shared word-family gives this greeting the depth of an embrace.
διεταράχθη
dietarachthē
GROWS FROM
ταράσσω
tarassō
To stir, agitate, or disturb.
“shaken” in this verse is dietarachthē. English troubled can sound like a fixed emotional state; this root carries motion, something stirred or agitated. The same verb names a heart’s disturbance, while its related noun can describe water being stirred, joining Mary’s inward upheaval to a concrete image of agitation.
ALSO GROWS
tarassō: Stir or trouble.
ταράσσω
In John 14:1, the same verb describes a troubled heart, showing the root’s movement from stirred waters to inner agitation.
tarachē: Stirring or disturbance.
ταραχή
In John 5:4, this related noun names the troubling of the pool’s water; the root can describe agitation within or without.
διελογίζετο
dielogizeto
GROWS FROM
λογίζομαι
logizomai
To reckon, count, or consider.
“reckoned through” in this verse is dielogizeto. The English phrase can sound as though thoughts are simply cast into her mind, but the Greek verb depicts her reasoning through the message. Its word-family describes reckoning and deliberation, so the verse presents her disturbance alongside active weighing.
ALSO GROWS
logizomai: Reckon or count.
λογίζομαι
Romans 4:3 uses this verb for what is counted, revealing the word-family’s sense of weighing something carefully.
dialogismos: Thought, reasoning, or deliberation.
διαλογισμός
Luke 2:35 uses this noun for the thoughts of the heart; Mary’s verb likewise presents thought as active inward examination.
THE PATTERN
A startling word can stir the hearer before its meaning is clear, while the mind holds it for examination.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was shaken, and awe fell upon him.But Mary kept all these words, casting them together in her heart.Until here is the end of the word. As for me, Daniel, my reckonings greatly startled me, and my brightness changed upon me, but I guarded the word in my heart.THE THREAD
And when Zacharias saw him, he was shaken, and awe fell upon him.The word translated troubled in both verses grows from the same Greek root for stirring or agitation. Luke places that disturbance in both Zechariah’s and Mary’s response to a messenger, before the meaning of the encounter is clear.
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