What Does Luke 19:31 Mean?
And if anyone asks you, "Why do you loose him?" you will say, "Because the Lord has need of him."
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 if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.THE KEY
The colt’s release is the very thing that meets the Lord’s need.
THE MEANING
What is tied is not thereby meant to remain held. The Lord’s need gives the release its direction: the colt is loosed because he is needed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what is bound must remain bound; here, release is exactly how the Lord’s need is met.
THE ROOT
λύετε
lyete
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
to loosen, untie, or release
“loose” in this verse is lyete. The Greek verb λύετε (lyete) comes from λύω (lyō), the same seed behind words for loosing and release. The sentence links release to the Lord’s need: the colt becomes available as its tether gives way.
ALSO GROWS
lýsis: a loosening, release, or dissolution
λύσις
This noun names the same movement from bound to unbound that the command expresses.
apolýō: to release, dismiss, or send away
ἀπολύω
The same root extends from untying a tether to letting someone go.
THE PATTERN
Release breaks binding and opens the way for what is needed to move.
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?The one who had died came out, his hands and feet bound in strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped his face. Jesus said to them, Untie him, and let him go.God raised him up, having loosed the labor pangs of death, for it was not possible for him to be held by it.THE THREAD
The one who had died came out, his hands and feet bound in strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped his face. Jesus said to them, Untie him, and let him go.In Luke, the colt’s tether gives way; in John, Lazarus’s graveclothes are loosened. Both use λύω (lyō), making release the shared hinge between being bound and coming into motion.
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