What Does Luke 21:28 Mean?
And when these things begin to come to be, then straighten up and lift your heads, for your release has drawn near.
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 these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.THE KEY
The lifted head is the body’s response to release drawing near at the very edge of upheaval.
THE MEANING
When upheaval begins, this verse names it as a moment when release is drawing near. Your head rises toward a horizon wider than what is breaking in front of you; deliverance is approaching, not merely imaginable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that worsening signs prove release is farther away. Here, the beginning of upheaval coincides with redemption drawing near.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύτρωσις
apolýtrōsis
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
to loosen, untie, release
English “redemption” can sound like a change of status; this word carries the image of release, a bound thing being let go. Since Luke says it draws near at the first signs, the verse places loosening at the edge of pressure itself.
ALSO GROWS
lyō: to loosen, untie, release
λύω
The seed verb gives redemption its concrete sense: bonds coming undone.
lytron: ransom; means of release
λύτρον
This branch links release with the price or means by which someone is freed.
lytroō: to ransom, redeem, release
λυτρόω
This verb names the act of freeing that stands behind the approaching redemption.
ἀνακύψατε
anakypsate
GROWS FROM
κύπτω
kyptō
to bend, stoop
“straighten up” in this verse is anakypsate. The verb pictures straightening from a bent posture. Looking up changes the body’s shape as well as its direction of sight, echoed immediately by the command to lift the head.
ALSO GROWS
kyptō: to bend, stoop
κύπτω
This is the lowered posture carried inside the verb.
anakyptō: to straighten up, lift the head
ἀνακύπτω
The upward movement reverses the bend, making the command a visible change in posture.
THE PATTERN
When deliverance draws near, release includes both lifted expectation and the restoration of embodied life.
Lift up your heads, O gates; and be lifted up, O doors of the ages; and the King of weight enters.Say to the hurried of heart, "Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God comes with vengeance. God comes with repayment. He comes and delivers you."And not only the creation, but we ourselves also, who hold the firstfruits of the breath, groan within ourselves, waiting for our placing as sons, the release of our body.THE THREAD
And not only the creation, but we ourselves also, who hold the firstfruits of the breath, groan within ourselves, waiting for our placing as sons, the release of our body.Both verses use ἀπολύτρωσις (apolýtrōsis, redemption or release): in Luke it draws near, and in Romans it names the body’s redemption. Romans makes the reach of this release explicit: it touches embodied life.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us