What Does Luke 2:12 Mean?
And this will be a sign for you, that you will find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
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 this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.THE KEY
The sign is no spectacle: it is a newborn, wrapped and laid where animals feed.
THE MEANING
The sign is concrete enough to be recognized: a newborn wrapped in cloth and lying in a feeding trough. What is announced becomes visible in a vulnerable body, something that can be found and approached.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A divine sign must arrive as a spectacle, separate from ordinary bodily life. Here the sign is a newborn resting in a feed trough.
THE ROOT
σημεῖον
sēmeion
GROWS FROM
σημ- (sēm-), as in σῆμα (sēma)
A mark or sign that identifies or indicates something.
The Greek word carries the sense of an identifying mark: this child’s particular state and place make the announcement recognizable. The sign is not separate from the child; the child’s presence is the sign.
ALSO GROWS
sēma: A mark, sign, or token.
σῆμα
This branch shows the sign as a recognizable mark, not an abstract message.
sēmainō: To indicate, signify, or make known by a sign.
σημαίνω
The sign makes the announcement legible through what can be seen: the wrapped child lying in a manger.
THE PATTERN
A sign makes a promise recognizable through a concrete event or presence.
And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Look, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.And truly Jesus did many other signs before the eyes of his disciples, which are not written in this book.THE THREAD
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.Luke 2:7 uses the same Greek verb for wrapping that appears in the description of the sign here. It also names the manger, so the identifying details in verse 12 are the same details that first place the child before you.
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