What Does Luke 11:4 Mean?
And release us from our shortcomings, for we also release everyone who owes us. And do not bring us into testing, but draw us out of evil.
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 forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.THE KEY
The same Greek verb is used twice: you ask to be released from your own missing, then name the release you extend to anyone who owes you.
THE MEANING
Your own missing and the debts others owe you are held within one request for release. You also ask not to be led into testing and to be rescued from evil. The prayer joins release with protection and deliverance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your own release is separate from the release of those whose debts you hold.
THE ROOT
ἄφες
áphes
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apó) + ἵημι (híēmi)
To send away or let go; by extension, to leave, remit, or forgive.
The verb appears first as ἄφες (áphes, release) and again as ἀφίομεν (aphíomen, we release). English gives it different objects, sins and debtors, but the repeated verb places both within the same movement of letting go.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, remission, or letting go.
ἄφεσις
In Luke 4:18, this same word family names release for captives, showing how the language of forgiveness also opens toward freedom.
aphíomen: We release, let go, or forgive.
ἀφίομεν
This is the verb’s second appearance in the verse, applied to the people who owe you.
ὀφείλοντι
opheílonti
GROWS FROM
ὀφειλ-
opheil-
To owe or be under an obligation.
“owes us” in this verse is opheílonti. The phrase pictures another person as owing you. Beside the preceding word for sins, that concrete debt makes the request for release relational: what you ask for yourself is paired with what you let go in another.
ALSO GROWS
opheílō: To owe or be obligated.
ὀφείλω
This is the verb behind “indebted” and makes the debt image explicit.
opheílēma: A debt or something owed.
ὀφείλημα
This noun appears in Matthew 6:12, where the prayer speaks of debts alongside the act of forgiving.
opheilétēs: A debtor, one who owes.
ὀφειλέτης
The debtor is not an abstraction here: the prayer names the person whose claim you release.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartías
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss or fail to reach.
“shortcomings” in this verse is hamartías. The word carries the sense of missing, but the verse does not treat the missing as harmless: it places it within a plea for release. The next clause makes that release visible through the language of debts owed by others.
ALSO GROWS
hamartánō: To miss, fail, or do wrong.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb shows the action beneath the noun translated “sins.”
hamártēma: A mistake, failure, or wrong act.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun keeps the focus on a particular missing rather than an abstract label.
THE PATTERN
Release lifts the claim held against someone and loosens the burden that keeps them bound.
And this is the word of the release. Every one whose hand has lent to his neighbor shall let it fall, and he shall not press it from his neighbor or from his brother, for it is called the LORD's release.Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?Holding up one another, and releasing one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, just as the Anointed One released you, so also you do.THE THREAD
The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.Luke 11:4 uses ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, release) for forgiving, while Luke 4:18 uses ἄφεσις (áphesis, release) for deliverance to captives. The same word family reaches from letting go of a debt to freedom from captivity.
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