What Does Luke 1:38 Mean?
And Mary said, Behold, the servant of the LORD; let it become to me according to your word. And the messenger went away from her.
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 Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.THE KEY
Mary’s “be it unto me” is Greek for “may it come to be for me,” turning a spoken word into something taking form.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of belonging to the Lord without losing the speaker’s own yes: “may it come to be for me according to your word.” The messenger leaves, while the word’s becoming remains open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the idea that belonging to the Lord erases a person’s voice: the speaker’s belonging and her own consent stand in the same sentence.
THE ROOT
γένοιτό
genoito
GROWS FROM
γεν-
gen-
coming into being; becoming
“let it become to me” in this verse is genoito. The phrase γένοιτό μοι (genoito moi, “may it come to be for me”) is an optative wish. The γεν- (gen-) family joins becoming with birth and origin, so Mary’s answer does more than assent to a statement: it names a coming-to-be for her.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: A beginning or coming into being.
γένεσις
It shows the same root’s connection between becoming and the beginning of something.
genos: A kind or line of descent.
γένος
It carries the root into what comes forth and takes a particular form.
ginomai: To come to be or take place.
γίνομαι
It is the verb family behind Mary’s wish that the spoken word come to be for her.
δούλη
doulē
GROWS FROM
δουλ-
doul-
bond-service; slavery
The Greek noun δούλη (doulē) means a female servant or slave, giving “handmaid” a sharper sense of belonging under a master. Its word family holds both the one who serves and the act of serving, so Mary’s consent is voiced from her stated relation to the Lord.
ALSO GROWS
doulos: A person in service or bondage.
δοῦλος
It shows the same word family in its masculine form and clarifies the force of “handmaid.”
douleuō: To serve under another’s authority.
δουλεύω
It makes explicit the service implicit in Mary’s self-description.
douloō: To place someone under bondage.
δουλόω
It shows the word family’s bond-service sense in the action of binding.
THE PATTERN
A word spoken by God is joined to what comes into being, rather than remaining mere sound.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.By trust we perceive that the ages were fitted together by the word of God, so that what is seen did not come out of what appears.THE THREAD
And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.Luke’s γένοιτό (genoito, “may it come to be”) and John’s ἐγένετο (egeneto, “became”) share γεν- (gen-, coming into being). Luke presents the word as something that may take form for Mary; John names the Word’s becoming flesh.
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