What Does Luke 2:20 Mean?
And the shepherds turned back, giving weight to God and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been spoken to them.
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 the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.THE KEY
What the shepherds hear becomes weight when they see it as told, and praise is how they give that recognition voice.
THE MEANING
When what you hear also comes into view, the word gains weight you can carry back into ordinary life. Praise rises as what was spoken and what is seen hold together. The encounter keeps moving with you after you leave the place where it began.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that leaving a sacred moment means leaving its truth behind: what is seen and heard continues in the return as praise.
THE ROOT
δοξάζοντες
doxazontes
GROWS FROM
δοξ- (dox-), from δόξα (doxa)
Weight, worth, honor.
“giving weight to” in this verse is doxazontes. Doxa carries the sense of weight: what is called glory here is recognized worth, and doxazō gives that worth expression. The shepherds’ hearing and seeing make the announcement carry weight in their praise.
ALSO GROWS
doxazō: glorify; give weight or honor
δοξάζω
This is the verb behind “glorifying”: the shepherds voice the importance of what they have heard and seen.
endoxos: honorable; held in honor
ἔνδοξος
This related form shows how doxa can describe what is regarded as worthy of honor, echoing the shepherds’ response to what has proved true before their eyes.
ἤκουσαν
ēkousan
GROWS FROM
ἀκου- (akou-), from ἀκούω (akouō)
To hear or listen.
English can make hearing sound passive, but ἀκούω also belongs to the field of attending to what is heard. Here hearing joins sight and the spoken message; what is received becomes recognizable, then voiced in praise.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: hearing; a report
ἀκοή
The related noun can name both hearing and what reaches the hearer, linking the shepherds’ reception to the announcement itself.
hypakouō: listen to; heed; obey
ὑπακούω
This related form carries hearing toward responsive attention, fitting the movement from receiving the message to responding with praise.
THE PATTERN
What is spoken and then recognized in experience returns to the world as testimony and praise.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Come and hear, all you who stand in awe of God, and I will recount what he has done for my living soul.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.Acts pairs the same Greek roots for hearing and seeing with an unavoidable response: speaking. In Luke, that convergence returns as praise; what has been received becomes something voiced.
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