What Does Luke 1:9 Mean?
According to the custom of the priests, the lot fell to him to send up the smoke of incense as he entered the temple of the LORD.
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
According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.THE KEY
The “lot” is a received portion of service, and that portion becomes an offering rising before the Lord.
THE MEANING
A portion of service arrives as something received, and its work takes the form of incense rising in the Lord’s temple. Assignment, offering, and sacred space meet in one movement: what is allotted becomes an act of approach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This loosens the belief that meaningful service must be claimed or self-created: here, the service comes as an allotted share.
THE ROOT
ἔλαχε
elache
GROWS FROM
λαγχάνω
lagchanō
To obtain by lot; to receive a share.
“the lot fell to him” in this verse is elache. The verb carries both choosing by lot and receiving a portion. Its other New Testament uses describe receiving a share of ministry or trust, so “lot” here holds more than chance: it is a portion received for service.
ALSO GROWS
elachen: Obtained a share.
ἔλαχεν
Acts uses this form for receiving a portion of ministry, echoing the allotted service in this verse.
lachousin: Having obtained a share.
λαχοῦσιν
Second Peter uses this form for receiving a share of trust, extending the sense of a portion received.
θυμιᾶσαι
thymiasai
GROWS FROM
θυμιάω
thymiaō
To burn or offer incense.
“send up the smoke of incense” in this verse is thymiasai. This verb belongs to a word family that names both incense and the place or vessel used to burn it. Scripture also uses rising incense as an image of prayer, so the act here carries the shape of an offering that rises before God.
ALSO GROWS
thymiama: Incense; aromatic smoke offered in worship.
θυμίαμα
This noun names what the action in the verse makes rise.
thymiatērion: An incense altar or censer.
θυμιατήριον
This branch names the vessel or altar associated with the same act of offering.
ἱερατείας
hierateias
GROWS FROM
ἱερός
hieros
Sacred; belonging to divine service.
The word for priestly office belongs to the same family as the words for priest and temple. English separates the role from the sacred place, while Greek lets them echo within one field of sacred service.
ALSO GROWS
hiereus: Priest.
ἱερεύς
The person serving in the priestly office shares this sacred word family.
hieron: Temple precinct; sacred place.
ἱερόν
The temple named later in the verse shares the root of the priestly office.
THE PATTERN
Incense gives a rising, visible form to what is offered before God as prayer and worship.
And Aaron shall make sweet smoke rise upon it every morning; when he trims the lamps, he shall make the smoke rise upon it.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.And another messenger comes and stands at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense is given to him, so that he might give it with the prayers of all the set-apart ones upon the golden altar before the face of the throne.THE THREAD
For he was counted with us, and had drawn the lot of this service.Luke’s verb λαγχάνω means to obtain by lot or receive a share. Acts uses the same verb for obtaining a portion of ministry, showing how the “lot” in this verse can carry the sense of service received as a share.
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