What Does Luke 1:34 Mean?

And Mary said to the messenger, How will this be, since I have not known a man?

Luke 1:34 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

THE KEY

Mary’s “know” names embodied sexual union, so her question begins with the boundary of what she has experienced.

THE MEANING

You meet Mary where bodily experience is real, and her question asks how the announced birth can happen without it. The verse holds open a possibility beyond the familiar conditions without pretending those conditions are absent.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that conception must always follow sexual union.

THE ROOT

γινώσκω

ginōskō

GROWS FROM

γινωσκ-

ginōsk-

To know, recognize, or become acquainted through encounter.

“have not known” in this verse is ginōskō. Here, with “a man” as its object, ⁨γινώσκω⁩ means sexual union. The same verb family elsewhere describes relational recognition, so “know” carries the sense of encounter rather than mere information.

ALSO GROWS

gnōsis: Knowing, knowledge.

γνῶσις

This branch keeps knowledge connected to the verb’s sense of coming to know, rather than only collecting information.

gnōstos: Known, familiar.

γνωστός

What is ⁨γνωστός⁩ is recognized through acquaintance; this echoes the encounter carried by Mary’s word.

THE PATTERN

Scripture uses knowing for encounter, whether bodily or relational.

And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, the gotten one, and she said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

Genesis 4:1 · SDV“Knew” names sexual union, making explicit the embodied sense Mary gives the word.

I am the good shepherd. I perceive my own, and my own perceive me.

John 10:14 · SDVThe same Greek verb family describes the shepherd’s close recognition of those who belong to him.

But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him.

1 Corinthians 8:3 · SDVBeing “known” is presented as a relation, not simply possession of facts.

THE THREAD

And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, the gotten one, and she said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

Genesis 4:1 · SDV

Genesis uses ⁨יָדַע⁩ (yada, know) for Adam’s sexual union with Eve. Its Greek translation uses ⁨ἔγνω⁩ (egnō, knew), from ⁨γινώσκω⁩ (ginōskō, know), the same verb family Mary uses, so her words name sexual union through the language of knowing.

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