What Does Luke 23:22 Mean?
And he said to them the third time, What evil has he done? I have found no cause of death in him. I will therefore discipline him and release him.
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 he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go.THE KEY
The verse exposes how innocence can be named while violence is still made the condition of release.
THE MEANING
You hear that no cause for death has been found, yet punishment is still proposed before release. The verse shows how naming someone innocent does not by itself stop those with power from harming them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once authorities recognize someone’s innocence, they will protect that person.
THE ROOT
παιδεύσας
paideúsas
GROWS FROM
παιδ-
paid-
Child; the word family extends to upbringing, training, and correction.
The Greek verb belongs to a family of words for upbringing and instruction, giving “chastise” a shade of correction or discipline. Yet the same sentence says no cause for death has been found, placing that corrective language beside a proposed punishment of someone declared undeserving of death.
ALSO GROWS
paideía: Upbringing, training, instruction
παιδεία
This related noun makes the verb’s corrective shade visible beneath the proposed punishment.
paîs: Child, boy, or servant
παῖς
It preserves the child-related seed beneath the family’s words for formation and discipline.
ἀπολύσω
apolýsō
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
Loosen, unbind; with ἀπό (apo-), release or send away.
The word carries the sense of releasing or sending someone away, with λύω at its root meaning to loosen. Here release is proposed only after punishment, so the verse holds inflicted pain and the promise of letting go together.
ALSO GROWS
lyō: Loosen, unbind
λύω
The base verb makes release concrete as the loosening of what is held.
apólysis: Release, dismissal
ἀπόλυσις
This related noun names the release that “let him go” presents as the intended outcome.
THE PATTERN
Naming someone innocent does not guarantee safety when those with power still permit punishment.
He set his grave among the wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, and no deceit was in his mouth.When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him there. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no cause in him.But you turned away from the Set-Apart One and the Aligned One, and you asked for a man of blood to be given to you as favor.THE THREAD
When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, "Woman, you have been unbound from your weakness."The Greek word behind “let him go” is ἀπολύω (apolýō), the same verb translated “thou art loosed” here. In Luke 23 release is proposed after chastisement; here the word names release from infirmity, making the difference between promised release and release spoken directly visible.
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