What Does Luke 22:68 Mean?
And if I also ask you, you will not answer me, nor release me.
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 if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go.THE KEY
The same refusal closes both doors: it withholds an answer and keeps the speaker held.
THE MEANING
You can know the closure of an exchange in which no answer comes and no way out is granted. Here, silence is part of the hold itself: the unanswered question and withheld release happen together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that silence is neutral; here, it is joined to withholding the speaker’s release.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύσητε
apolýsēte
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
Loosen; untie; release.
“release me” in this verse is apolýsēte. The Greek form ἀπολύσητε (apolýsēte, “you release”) grows from λύω (lyō, “loosen”). So “let me go” names the undoing of a hold; the line makes that release the second thing withheld, paired with an answer.
ALSO GROWS
apolýō: Release; dismiss.
ἀπολύω
This is the verb behind “let me go”: release means undoing the hold on a person.
lýtron: Ransom; price of release.
λύτρον
This word from the same family links release with freeing a captive; here, release is being withheld.
ἀποκριθῆτε
apokrithēte
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
Distinguish; decide; judge.
The Greek verb ἀποκριθῆτε (apokrithēte, “you answer”) belongs to the family of κρίνω (krinō, “distinguish, decide, judge”). English “answer” can sound like mere speech; this word family gives the withheld reply the edge of a decision withheld, while the next clause shows the restraint that follows.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment; decision.
κρίσις
This branch carries the decision-making sense in the family of the word translated “answer.”
kritēs: Judge; one who decides.
κριτής
The shared root connects a reply with the act of making a judgment known.
THE PATTERN
Freedom becomes visible when a hold is loosened, and the one with power to release decides whether the way opens.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.He brings them out of darkness and the valley of deepest darkness, and tears their bonds apart.I will therefore discipline him and release him.THE THREAD
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has given weight to his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and turned away from in the face of Pilate, when he had judged it right to release him.The same verb ἀπολύω (apolýō, “release”) appears here as “let him go.” The verse places denial beside the possibility of release, echoing how this verse joins a withheld answer to a withheld release.
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