What Does Luke 1:56 Mean?
And Mary stayed with her about three months, and turned back to her own house.
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 abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.THE KEY
The Greek calls Mary’s stay μένω (menō, remain), from the same word family that gives Greek a word for a dwelling place.
THE MEANING
A season of shared life can be substantial and still have an ending: Mary remains with Elizabeth for three months, then returns to her own home. Nearness and return stand together in the same line.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that closeness is only real if it lasts forever; Mary’s three months are a full season of staying, with a clear return home.
THE ROOT
μένω
menō
GROWS FROM
μεν-
men-
To remain, stay, or continue.
“stayed” in this verse is menō. The Greek word names more than a brief visit: it is the language of remaining. Its word family includes μονή (monē), a dwelling place, so the idea of staying can take shape as a place to dwell.
ALSO GROWS
monē: Dwelling place; place to stay.
μονή
This branch shows how remaining and the place of dwelling belong to one word family.
paramenō: Remain beside; continue.
παραμένω
This compound brings out staying alongside, echoing Mary’s time with Elizabeth.
ὑπέστρεψεν
hypestrepsen
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
To turn; in this compound, to turn back or return.
“turned back” in this verse is hypestrepsen. The word for Mary’s return carries the sense of turning back toward her own home. The verse gives her stay a shape: a season of remaining, followed by a return.
ALSO GROWS
epistrephō: Turn toward; return.
ἐπιστρέφω
This branch makes turning back or toward visible in the movement of the verse.
apostrephō: Turn away.
ἀποστρέφω
This related verb highlights how στρέφω words describe movement by turning.
THE PATTERN
Staying makes relationship tangible: it becomes ongoing love, shared belonging, or a dwelling place.
And Ruth said, Do not press me to let go of you, or to turn back from following after you. For where you walk, I will walk, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your God my God.Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it stays in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.Let the love of brothers remain.THE THREAD
But they pressed him, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day has already leaned. And he went in to stay with them.Luke 24:29 uses the same verb μένω (menō, remain or abide) when the speakers ask Jesus to stay with them. Here Mary’s remaining is measured in months; there, the same root makes remaining the language of welcome into a home.
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