What Does Luke 22:37 Mean?
For I say to you, what is written must yet reach its end in me, and he was reckoned among the unbounded. For the things concerning me come to their end.
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
For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.THE KEY
The Greek word-family behind “accomplished” and “end” shows that what concerns Jesus reaches completion in the one counted among the lawless.
THE MEANING
Here, what is written concerning Jesus reaches its completion in him, and that completion includes his being counted among the lawless. The verse holds the promised outcome together with the disgraceful category in which he is reckoned.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that fulfillment means being kept clear of disgrace; here, what is written reaches completion while Jesus is counted among transgressors.
THE ROOT
τελεσθῆναι
telesthēnai
GROWS FROM
τέλος (telos) / τελέω (teleō) word-family
Completion, an endpoint or goal; as a verb, to bring something to completion.
“reach its end” in this verse is telesthēnai. The verse puts the verb “be accomplished” and the noun “end” in one Greek word-family. The end of what concerns Jesus is its completion in him, not an unrelated cutoff.
ALSO GROWS
teleō: Complete; bring to its end.
τελέω
This is the verb behind “be accomplished” in the verse.
tetelestai: It has been completed; it is finished.
τετέλεσται
John 19:30 uses this form from the same verb family, echoing completion at the cross.
ἀνόμων
anomōn
GROWS FROM
νόμος (nomos), with privative ἀ- (a-)
νόμος means instruction, law, or an established norm; ἄνομος describes one outside it.
“the unbounded” in this verse is anomōn. The Greek word ἄνομος names those as lawless, in relation to νόμος, instruction. Its word-shape gives “transgressors” the added sense of people standing outside instruction.
ALSO GROWS
nomos: Instruction; law; an established norm.
νόμος
This is the base word within ἀνόμων and clarifies the standard its label invokes.
anomia: Lawlessness; being outside the law or instruction.
ἀνομία
This related word makes explicit the condition named by ἄνομος.
ἐλογίσθη
elogisthē
GROWS FROM
λογ- (log-), in the family of λόγος (logos)
To count, calculate, reckon, or account.
“reckoned” in this verse is elogisthē. The verb is accounting language: he is entered in the same reckoning as those called lawless. It names the company assigned to him, not deeds attributed to him.
ALSO GROWS
logos: Word; statement; account.
λόγος
Its account sense illuminates the counting language in “reckoned.”
logismos: Calculation; reasoning; reckoning.
λογισμός
This related noun carries the same counting and accounting sense.
THE PATTERN
What is written reaches completion in the one counted among the lawless.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his living soul to death, and was counted with the rebels. He carried the falling short of many, and for the rebels he stepped in.And he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be filled which have been written about me in the instruction of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms.When Jesus had taken the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and handed over his breath.THE THREAD
When Jesus had taken the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and handed over his breath.Luke’s τελεσθῆναι (telesthēnai, “to be completed”) and τέλος (telos, “completion” or “end”) point to the same word-family as John’s τετέλεσται (tetelestai, “it has been completed”). That shared root makes “have an end” read as arriving at completion.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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