What Does Luke 1:55 Mean?
As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for the ages.
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
As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.THE KEY
The promise keeps moving through Abraham’s seed, carrying one spoken word across generations and ages.
THE MEANING
God’s promise is presented as reaching beyond one generation, carried through Abraham and his seed into the age. Its reach continues in the present rather than ending with the moment it is spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The promise ended with the generation that first heard it.
THE ROOT
σπέρμα
sperma
GROWS FROM
σπερ
sper
Seed; that which is sown and can grow into further life.
The word for “seed” belongs to the same word family as sowing, so it holds both what is planted and what continues to grow. Here Abraham’s descendants are not only named as a lineage; the word carries the image of life moving forward.
ALSO GROWS
speirō: To sow.
σπείρω
Sowing makes the seed’s movement visible: what is carried forward can take root and continue.
spora: Sowing; seed.
σπορά
This word family keeps the act of sowing and the seed itself together, illuminating how the promise is carried through descendants.
αἰῶνα
aiōna
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age, era, or span of time.
“for the ages” in this verse is aiōna. The phrase εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (eis ton aiōna, into the age) gives “for ever” the image of a promise extending forward through time. The KJV conveys its enduring force, while the Greek also lets the reader hear its movement into the age.
ALSO GROWS
aiōnios: Age-long; belonging to an age.
αἰώνιος
This related word carries the same sense of duration or belonging to an age, echoing the promise’s continuing reach.
aiōnes: Ages.
αἰῶνες
The plural makes the passage of multiple ages explicit, widening the time horizon of the promise.
THE PATTERN
God’s spoken covenant promise continues through generations and across the ages.
And I will make my covenant stand between me and you, and your seed after you in their generations, for a covenant of the ages, to be God to you and to your seed after you.He remembers his covenant for the ages, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.Therefore it is out of trust, that it may be by favor, so that the promise stands firm for all the seed, not only for those of instruction, but also for those of the trust of Abraham, who is father of us all.THE THREAD
Therefore it is out of trust, that it may be by favor, so that the promise stands firm for all the seed, not only for those of instruction, but also for those of the trust of Abraham, who is father of us all.Luke and Romans use the same Greek word, σπέρμα (sperma, seed), for the line connected to Abraham. Romans opens the scope of that seed as “all the seed,” extending the promise’s reach.
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