What Does Luke 1:71 Mean?
That we would be delivered from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us;
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
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;THE KEY
Luke’s word for being “saved” belongs to the same Greek word family used for being “made whole,” so deliverance carries restoration within it.
THE MEANING
The verse names the hostility plainly and also names the possibility of being brought out from under its reach. The hand of those who hate you does not have to be the final shape of your life; deliverance opens the way to restoration.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that the hatred directed at you gets to define your future or keep you permanently in its grasp is undone.
THE ROOT
σωτηρίας
sōtērias
GROWS FROM
σωζ- (sōz-, the σῴζω word-family stem)
To rescue or deliver; depending on context, to preserve or make well.
“delivered” in this verse is sōtērias. Luke’s word here, σωτηρίας (sōtērias, “deliverance”), belongs to the same word family as σῴζω (sōzō, “rescue” or “make well”). In Luke 8:48, that family describes a woman being made whole, joining deliverance from danger with restoration.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēr: Deliverer, savior
σωτήρ
This cognate names the one who brings out; the agent and the act of deliverance share a word family.
sesōken: Has made whole, has healed
σέσωκεν
Luke 8:48 uses this form when Jesus tells a woman she has been made whole; the same word family can describe healing as well as rescue.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance brings people out from under the reach of hostile power.
And the LORD delivered Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the lip of the sea.He snatches me from my strong enemy and from my haters, for they are too firm for me.Who has brought us out of the authority of darkness and has moved us into the governance of the Son of his love.THE THREAD
And he said to her, Daughter, take heart. Your trust has delivered you. Go into wholeness.Luke uses σέσωκεν (sesōken, “has made whole”) here, a form of σῴζω (sōzō, “rescue” or “make well”), the word family behind σωτηρίας (sōtērias, “deliverance”) in Luke 1:71. One word family can name bodily healing and release from hostile power, letting deliverance carry restoration within it.
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