What Does Luke 2:29 Mean?
Master, now you let your servant go in wholeness, according to your word.
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
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:THE KEY
The word translated “depart” is release, so the servant’s going is a letting-go granted by the Master and held in wholeness.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of a servant’s release: the Master lets you go in keeping with the word already spoken. The departure takes place within wholeness, so letting go and peace belong to the same moment. Its “now” is where the word becomes release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that being let go means being abandoned is undone here: the release comes from the Master, follows his word, and is held in wholeness.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύεις
apolyeis
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
To loosen, untie, or release.
“let go” in this verse is apolyeis. English “depart” can sound like movement away; this verb carries the sense of being released or dismissed. The servant’s going is something the Master grants, and the same word family can describe release from custody.
ALSO GROWS
luō: Loosen, untie, release.
λύω
In John 11:44 this is the word translated “Loose”; release has the tactile sense of unbinding.
apolyō: Release, dismiss, let go.
ἀπολύω
Mark 15:6 uses this verb when Pilate releases a prisoner, showing the word can name release from custody.
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
GROWS FROM
εἰρην-
eirēn-
Peace, wholeness; a state of well-being.
Here, eirēnē is the wholeness in which release takes place. Its word family reaches from living at peace to making peace, showing wholeness as both a condition to inhabit and a reality between people.
ALSO GROWS
eirēneuō: Live in peace, be at peace.
εἰρηνεύω
In 2 Corinthians 13:11 this family describes peace as a lived condition, not merely a quiet feeling.
eirēnopoios: Peacemaker.
εἰρηνοποιός
In Matthew 5:9 the same family names one who makes peace, extending wholeness into relationships.
THE PATTERN
God’s word can carry a servant from completed service into release and rest.
Turn back, my living soul, to your settling place; for the LORD deals out good to you.For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, and was laid beside his fathers, and saw decay.Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.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.The verb behind “depart” in Luke shares its base with the verb behind “Loose him” here. In one verse a servant is released; in the other, graveclothes are unbound around the one who comes forth, the shared root gives release the feel of something actually loosened.
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