What Does Luke 22:61 Mean?
And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crows, you shall refuse me thrice.
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 the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.THE KEY
The Lord turns toward the very man who has denied him, and the remembered word names Peter’s failure in the presence of that gaze.
THE MEANING
The Lord turns toward you and looks upon you as your denial becomes unmistakable. In that moment, the word already spoken returns to your awareness: you deny him three times. The failure is fully named in the presence of the Lord’s gaze.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that failure makes you unseen by the Lord: his gaze is turned toward Peter as Peter remembers the full truth of his denial.
THE ROOT
ὑπεμνήσθη
hypemnēsthē
GROWS FROM
μνη-
mnē-
Memory; recalling or bringing something to mind.
The Greek verb is passive in form: Peter is reminded, brought back to the Lord’s word. The Lord’s gaze comes just before this return, placing the remembered word inside an encounter rather than detached recollection.
ALSO GROWS
hypomimnēskō: To remind; to call to mind.
ὑπομιμνῄσκω
This is the verb family behind Peter’s ‘remembered’; its sense can hold both remembering and being reminded.
anamnēsis: Remembrance; recalling.
ἀνάμνησις
The shared memory stem links Peter’s return to the word with remembrance as something brought into the present.
mnēmoneuō: To remember; to keep in mind.
μνημονεύω
This branch shows the same memory stem extending from a sudden recollection to what remains held in mind.
ἐνέβλεψεν
eneblepsen
GROWS FROM
βλέπ-
blep-
To see; to look.
“looked upon” in this verse is eneblepsen. The verb describes directed seeing: the Lord looks at Peter. Its placement immediately before Peter is reminded makes the gaze and the return of the word part of the same charged moment.
ALSO GROWS
blepō: To see; to look.
βλέπω
This is the basic seeing carried in the verb used for the Lord’s gaze.
emblepō: To look at; to gaze upon.
ἐμβλέπω
This form names the directed attention that the verse places on Peter.
apoblepō: To look toward; to regard.
ἀποβλέπω
This compound shows the βλέπ- stem in a gaze directed toward someone or something.
THE PATTERN
A remembered word reconnects the present moment to what was spoken before.
He remembers his covenant for the ages, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.And they remembered his words.So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they leaned their weight on the writing and on the word Jesus had spoken.THE THREAD
And they remembered his words.Luke uses the same Greek memory stem in both scenes: Peter is brought back to the Lord’s word, and the women remember Jesus’ words. In each, what was spoken returns to awareness in the midst of a vivid encounter.
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