What Does Luke 2:21 Mean?
And when eight days were filled for the cutting around of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was named by the messenger before he was gathered together in the womb.
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 when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.THE KEY
The name Jesus is spoken before conception because deliverance is present before its evidence appears.
THE MEANING
Here, a name carries its meaning before the life bearing it can be seen. Jesus carries the name Yeshua, deliverance; the verse places that meaning before conception and repeats it on the eighth day. For you, meaning can be present before its full shape appears.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that deliverance becomes real only once a change can be seen: here, its name is spoken before conception.
THE ROOT
ἐκλήθη
eklēthē
GROWS FROM
καλ-
Call, summon, or give a name.
“was called” in this verse is eklēthē. The verb for naming belongs to the same Greek family as calling and summoning. Here, that call is already spoken before conception, so the name precedes the life becoming visible.
ALSO GROWS
kaleō: Call, summon, name.
καλέω
The verb from which ἐκλήθη comes shares the same consonantal stem; naming is an act of calling.
klēsis: Calling, summons.
κλῆσις
This related noun preserves the root’s k-l consonants and makes the connection between a call and a named life audible.
epikaleō: Call upon, invoke, name.
ἐπικαλέω
This compound keeps the καλέω (kaleō) stem: a name is voiced as a call.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēšūaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver; bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
The Hebrew and Aramaic name behind Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, Jesus) is יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ, deliverance), from the root יָשַׁע (yashaʿ, deliver). The name makes deliverance the nature carried into the world, spoken before that life can display its work.
ALSO GROWS
yashaʿ: Deliver, bring out.
יָשַׁע
This verb is the root’s action: movement out of constriction into spaciousness.
yeshuʿah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the deliverance held in יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ, Jesus).
moshiaʿ: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This word names the one who carries out the root’s act of bringing out.
THE PATTERN
A name or calling can be spoken before the life and work it names become visible.
Bend your ear to me, coastlands, and bend your ear, peoples from far. The LORD has called me from the womb; from my mother's inward parts he has spoken my name.But when God was pleased, the one who marked me off from my mother's womb and called me through his favor,THE THREAD
Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.The word translated “salvation” is יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuʿah, deliverance), from the same root ישע as יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ, Jesus). Isaiah gives the name’s root a voice: deliverance is already present in the name before its work can be seen.
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