What Does Luke 2:18 Mean?
And all who heard it marveled at the things spoken to them by the shepherds.
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 all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.THE KEY
The “things” that spread wonder are ῥήματα (rhēmata, utterances), the same spoken words Mary holds in the next verse.
THE MEANING
The shepherds’ report reaches you through human voices, and its words open into wonder before you know what to make of them. The astonishment spreads through all who hear, as a spoken message becomes a shared encounter.
THE ROOT
ῥήματα
rhēmata
GROWS FROM
ῥέω
rheō
to speak, say, or utter
“things which were told” in this verse is rhēmata. English makes the message sound like a bundle of “things,” but Greek names them as ῥήματα (rhēmata, utterances): speech that can be received and carried. The same ῥήματα (rhēmata, utterances) appear in Luke 2:19, where Mary keeps them; one spoken message becomes both shared astonishment and inward holding.
ALSO GROWS
rhēma: a word, saying, or utterance
ῥῆμα
This is the singular form behind the “things” the shepherds speak and the listeners hear.
rhētōr: a speaker or public orator
ῥήτωρ
The word for speaker shares this family of speech; here, the shepherds’ spoken witness carries the message outward.
ἐθαύμασαν
ethaúmasan
GROWS FROM
θαῦμα
thauma
a marvel, something that evokes wonder
“marveled at” in this verse is ethaúmasan. The Greek word marks the hearers’ response as wonder stirred by what they have heard. It lets the moment remain open: the report has landed, and astonishment is already real before the verse offers any further explanation.
ALSO GROWS
thaumazō: to wonder or marvel
θαυμάζω
This is the verb behind “wondered,” naming the hearers’ response to the report.
thaumastós: marvelous or wonderful
θαυμαστός
This related word describes what evokes wonder, linking the hearers’ response to the report’s astonishing character.
THE PATTERN
When testimony exceeds familiar expectation, hearing or seeing can open into wonder before explanation.
Your witnesses are wonders; therefore my living soul guards them.And when the sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were struck out of themselves, saying, From where has this man these things? And what wisdom is this that has been given to him, that such strength comes about through his hands?And they were all beside themselves and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are not all these who speak Galilaeans?THE THREAD
But Mary kept all these words, casting them together in her heart.The “things” that astonish the listeners are the same ῥήματα (rhēmata, utterances) Mary keeps. Her response shows what happens to the spoken words after they land: wonder becomes sustained inward attention.
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