What Does Luke 1:50 Mean?
And his faithful love is for those in awe of him, from generation to generation.
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 his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.THE KEY
The Greek word for “generation” carries the sense of birth, so this mercy reaches through lives as they come into being.
THE MEANING
As you stand in awe of God, his compassion rests over you. Its reach continues beyond your lifetime, from one generation to the next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God’s compassion is only for one moment or one lifetime is undone here: the verse gives it continuity from generation to generation.
THE ROOT
γενεά
genea
GROWS FROM
γεν-
gen-
Coming to birth; coming into being.
English can make “generation” sound like a measure of time, but its Greek word-family points to people coming into being. The repeated generations picture compassion carried forward through new lives.
ALSO GROWS
gennaō: Beget; give birth.
γεννάω
It makes the birth-sense within “generation” visible: one life gives rise to another.
genesis: Birth; origin; coming into being.
γένεσις
It shares the language of beginnings, showing that the verse’s reach includes those who come after.
ἔλεος
eleos
GROWS FROM
ἐλε-
ele-
Compassion expressed as mercy and its active showing.
“faithful love” in this verse is eleos. This word belongs to a family that names both compassion and the act of showing it. Here, that compassion rests upon those who stand in awe of God and continues across generations.
ALSO GROWS
eleeō: Show mercy; have compassion.
ἐλεέω
The related verb presents mercy as compassion expressed toward someone.
eleēmosynē: Almsgiving; an act of mercy.
ἐλεημοσύνη
This related word shows compassion taking tangible form.
THE PATTERN
God’s care reaches beyond the present recipient, extending its reach to those who follow.
But the faithful love of the LORD is from age to age upon those in awe of him, and his alignment is to the children's children.For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the LORD our God calls to himself.THE THREAD
He has taken hold of Israel his servant, to remember his faithful love.The same Greek noun appears here as ἐλέους (eleous, mercy), an inflected form of ἔλεος (eleos). In this verse compassion rests on those in awe of God; here, it is remembered as help reaching a people.
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