What Does Luke 10:1 Mean?
After these things the Lord showed forth seventy others also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, where he himself was about to come.
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
After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.THE KEY
His arrival is already at work in the people he sends ahead, before he himself enters the place.
THE MEANING
When you are sent, you enter places already within his path of coming. You go before his face, so the beginning of his arrival is present before he steps into the place himself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that his coming begins only when he appears in person; here, those he sends make his approach present before he arrives.
THE ROOT
ἀπέστειλεν
apesteilen
GROWS FROM
στέλλω (stellō), in ἀποστέλλω (apostellō)
To send or dispatch; ἀπό (apo) adds the sense of sending out or away.
The Greek verb is from the same word family as apostolos, a sent one: the sending gives these people their role in the scene. They go ahead of him into the places he intends to enter, so his approach begins through their arrival.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A sent one, an emissary.
ἀπόστολος
The related noun names a person by the act of being sent, echoing the seventy’s purpose here.
apostolē: A sending or commission.
ἀποστολή
This branch makes the sending itself visible as a deliberate charge, not a journey the seventy begin on their own.
ἀνέδειξεν
anedeixen
GROWS FROM
δείκνυμι (deiknymi), within ἀναδείκνυμι (anadeiknymi)
To show, point out, or designate.
“showed forth” in this verse is anedeixen. The verb translated appointed also carries the sense of designating or showing forth. The Lord identifies who will go before him, then sends them into the places where he will come.
ALSO GROWS
apodeiknymi: To demonstrate or show plainly.
ἀποδείκνυμι
This related verb makes the root’s sense of showing explicit: appointment brings a choice into view.
epideixis: A display or demonstration.
ἐπίδειξις
The word family keeps designation connected to what is made visible, illuminating the Lord’s choice of those who go ahead.
THE PATTERN
The one who is coming sends people ahead to prepare the way for his arrival.
Look, I send a messenger before you to guard you in the way and to bring you to the place I have established.Look, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. Look, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.You yourselves bear witness to me, that I said, I am not the Anointed One, but that I have been sent ahead of him.THE THREAD
And he sent messengers before his face, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.Luke repeats the same Greek verb for sent and the phrase before his face. Luke 10:1 expands this movement from one Samaritan village to every city and place he intends to visit.
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