What Does Luke 1:46 Mean?
And Mary said, My living soul makes the LORD great.
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, My soul doth magnify the Lord,THE KEY
The living soul magnifies the Lord by bringing divine greatness into full view within the whole self.
THE MEANING
Your living soul magnifies the Lord: your whole living self gives expression to the greatness it recognizes. The verb means to make great or extol, so praise brings that greatness fully into view. The verse holds inward recognition and outward expression together in one act.
THE ROOT
μεγαλύνει
megalýnei
GROWS FROM
μεγαλ-
megal-
Great; greatness brought into view or expression.
“makes great” in this verse is megalýnei. The word grows from the idea of greatness: the living soul gives the Lord’s greatness an enlarged field of expression. Magnifying here makes that greatness perceptible through praise.
ALSO GROWS
megas: great
μέγας
This adjective gives the verb its core image: greatness is what the action brings into view.
megethos: size, greatness
μέγεθος
This noun keeps the image of scale alive: magnifying makes greatness perceptible.
ψυχή
psychē
GROWS FROM
ψυχ-
psych-
Living soul; the life or living being of a person.
“living soul” in this verse is psychē. The Greek word can name a person’s life or whole living self, not only an inner, private part. Read this way, “my soul” gives the magnifying voice the fullness of a living person.
ALSO GROWS
psychikos: pertaining to the soul; natural
ψυχικός
This related adjective describes a person in ordinary human life, keeping psyche connected to the whole living self.
apsychos: lifeless; without life
ἄψυχος
Its opposite shows how psyche can name life itself, giving “my soul” a fuller sense than private feeling.
THE PATTERN
A living soul magnifies God by giving recognized greatness open expression.
O grow the LORD great with me, and let us lift up his name together.For they heard them speaking in tongues and magnifying God. Then Peter answered,According to my outstretched watching and my hope, that in nothing I will be shamed, but in all open speech, as always, so also now the Anointed One will be enlarged in my body, whether by living or by dying.THE THREAD
According to my outstretched watching and my hope, that in nothing I will be shamed, but in all open speech, as always, so also now the Anointed One will be enlarged in my body, whether by living or by dying.Philippians uses the same Greek verb, μεγαλύνω (megalynō), as this verse: here a soul magnifies the Lord; there Christ is magnified in the body. The shared root opens the image from inward recognition into a life where that greatness becomes visible.
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