What Does Luke 24:2 Mean?
And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
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 found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.THE KEY
The word for “sepulchre” belongs to the same Greek family as “remember,” so the stone is moved from a place named for memory just before remembrance is called forth.
THE MEANING
You find the tomb with its stone already rolled away; the verse begins with the barrier’s removal as a completed fact. The tomb’s name belongs to the language of remembrance, and the next line turns your attention to remembered words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the tomb remains sealed until the arriving women can move it: they find the stone already rolled away.
THE ROOT
μνημείου
mnēmeiou
GROWS FROM
μνη-
mnē-
Memory, remembrance; in this word, a tomb or memorial
The source form μνημείου (mnēmeiou, “of the tomb or memorial”) belongs to the memory family, rather than being only a location label. That family returns when the women are told to remember in verse 6, moving the scene from a stone displaced from a memorial to words brought back to mind.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory, remembrance
μνήμη
This word shows the memory already carried in μνημεῖον (mnēmeion, “tomb or memorial”).
mimnēskomai: Remember, call to mind
μιμνήσκομαι
The related family appears in Luke 24:6 as μνήσθητε (mnēsthēte, “remember”), the next movement in the scene.
ἀποκεκυλισμένον
apokekylismenon
GROWS FROM
κυλ-
kyl-
To roll, turn, or roll along
This is a perfect passive form: the rolling is complete, and the stone remains in its moved state when the women arrive. The prefix ἀπο- (apo, “away”) makes the direction explicit while the root preserves the physical action inside “rolled away.”
ALSO GROWS
apokylio: Roll away
ἀποκυλίω
This is the verb family used for the stone being rolled from the tomb’s entrance.
proskylio: Roll toward or against
προσκυλίω
Mark 15:46 uses this related form when Joseph rolls the stone against the tomb, showing the same action can close or open a threshold.
λίθον
lithon
GROWS FROM
λιθ-
lith-
Stone
The Greek word names the object marking the threshold. Hebrew wordplay hears אֶבֶן (even, “stone”) with אָב (av, “father”) and בֵּן (ben, “son”), placing the father-son image at the grave’s boundary even as that boundary opens.
ALSO GROWS
lithoboleō: Stone or throw stones at
λιθοβολέω
The same stone can become an instrument of harm, while here it is the barrier whose removal opens the tomb.
lithostrōtos: Paved with stone
λιθόστρωτος
The root also names stone as a surface underfoot, not only as a barrier.
THE PATTERN
When a barrier is rolled away, a way to life, provision, or renewed belonging opens.
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob drew near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and gave drink to the flock of Laban his mother's brother.And the LORD said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the taunt of Egypt from off you. Therefore the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.Jesus said, Lift away the stone. Martha, sister of the one who had died, said to him, Lord, by now he stinks, for he has been dead four days.THE THREAD
He is not here, but has been raised. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee.The word rendered “sepulchre” in verse 2 is μνημείου (mnēmeiou, “of the tomb or memorial”), from μνη- (mnē-, “memory or remembrance”); “remember” here is μνήσθητε (mnēsthēte, “remember”), from the same family. The opened place of remembrance is followed by words being brought back to mind.
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