What Does Luke 1:49 Mean?
For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and set apart is his name.
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
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.THE KEY
The same Greek word-family means both “magnify” and “great things”: the soul magnifies because the Mighty One has made greatness tangible.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader a first-person recognition: the Mighty One has done great things for me. His power takes shape in acts, and his name carries his set-apart nature.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that divine power is abstract or distant from a person’s lived life.
THE ROOT
μεγάλα
megala
GROWS FROM
μέγας / μεγαλ- (megas / megal-)
Greatness, size; the quality of being great or making great
In Luke 1:46, μεγαλύνω (megalynō, “magnify”) shares this family with μεγάλα (megala, “great things”). The repeated root joins the soul’s response to the greatness made visible in concrete acts.
ALSO GROWS
megalynō: To make great, magnify
μεγαλύνω
Luke 1:46 uses this word for the soul magnifying the Lord, linking that response to the great things named here.
megaleia: Great or mighty deeds
μεγαλεῖα
This related word names greatness as something expressed through deeds.
ὁ δυνατός
ho dynatos
GROWS FROM
δύναμαι
dynamai
To be able, to have capacity
“the Mighty One” in this verse is ho dynatos. Here “mighty” names the capable one; the next phrase presents that capacity as completed action. The verse holds power and personal experience together.
ALSO GROWS
dynamis: Power, ability
δύναμις
It names the capacity present in the word “mighty” and made visible in the great acts.
adynateō: To be unable, be impossible
ἀδυνατέω
The same word-family marks the boundary of what cannot be done, sharpening the force of the capable one’s action.
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνοματ-
onomat-
Name, naming, designation
The line says his “holy” applies to his name, his nature and character. The name gathers who he is into what the verse says he does.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name, call
ὀνομάζω
This verb shows the root in the act of naming, which identifies the one being spoken of.
onomastos: Named, renowned
ὀνομαστός
This related form connects a name with the character or reputation by which someone is known.
THE PATTERN
The one named mighty is recognized through great acts that become personal testimony.
The LORD has grown great in doing with us, and we were glad.Now to him who is strong enough to do beyond all that we ask or perceive, overflowing past measure, according to the strength that works in us.THE THREAD
And Mary said, My living soul makes the LORD great.Luke 1:46 uses μεγαλύνω (megalynō, “magnify”), from the same Greek word-family as μεγάλα (megala, “great things”) in Luke 1:49. The shared root connects the soul’s recognition with greatness expressed through concrete acts.
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