What Does Luke 21:7 Mean?
And they asked him, saying, Teacher, when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to come to be?
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 they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?THE KEY
They seek not just a date but the mark by which a coming reality can be recognized.
THE MEANING
When what you expect begins to shift, you ask both when it will happen and what will make it recognizable. Beneath the search for a date is a second desire: a marker that lets you see the change taking shape.
THE ROOT
σημεῖον
sēmeion
GROWS FROM
σημ- (sēm-), from σῆμα (sēma)
A mark, sign, or signal.
A sign is a mark by which something otherwise hidden or unfolding becomes recognizable. Their question pairs the sign with the timing: they want to know both when the change will arrive and how they will recognize it.
ALSO GROWS
sēmainō: To indicate or signify.
σημαίνω
This branch shows how a sign points beyond itself and makes something recognizable.
sēma: A mark or token.
σῆμα
The underlying image is a visible mark that can identify or disclose what is otherwise unseen.
γίνεσθαι
ginesthai
GROWS FROM
γεν-/γιν- (gen-/gin-), from γίνομαι (ginomai)
To become, come into being, or happen.
“come to be” in this verse is ginesthai. The phrase carries the sense of events becoming or taking shape. The question is not only when a moment arrives; it asks when what is coming will become visible in the world.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: Origin, birth, or coming into being.
γένεσις
This related word makes the movement from possibility into formed reality audible in the question.
gegonos: An event, or what has happened.
γεγονός
This form names what has come to be, echoing the movement from unfolding to recognizable event.
THE PATTERN
A sign is a mark that makes an otherwise hidden or unfolding reality recognizable.
I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be the mark of a covenant between me and the earth.Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Look, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.This beginning of signs Jesus made in Cana of Galilee, and he brought his weight into the light, and his disciples leaned their weight on him.THE THREAD
And there will be great shakings of the earth in place after place, and hunger, and plague, and frightening sights, and great signs from heaven.The repeated σημεῖα (sēmeia, signs or marks) connects the question directly to what follows. The answer presents signs among events unfolding on earth and in the heavens, giving the question’s search for a marker a concrete shape.
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