What Does Luke 24:21 Mean?
But we had been expecting that he was the one about to redeem Israel. Yet together with all this, today is the third day since these things happened.
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
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.THE KEY
They describe the redeemer as one who should have acted while the scene places him beside them, so failed expectation can hide redemption already present.
THE MEANING
When hope is attached to one expected form of rescue, a moment that seems too late can feel like proof that nothing happened. “To day is the third day” gives that ache a deadline: the expected redemption appears to have passed. Yet the scene places the hoped-for redeemer within earshot, showing how present deliverance can remain unseen while disappointment speaks.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that if deliverance has not arrived in the form or time expected, it has failed.
THE ROOT
λυτροῦσθαι
lytrousthai
GROWS FROM
λυτρ-
lytr-
Ransom; release secured by ransom.
“redeem” in this verse is lytrousthai. The KJV “redeemed” carries the sense of release through ransom: the held one is freed from what claims them. The travelers speak of that release as a failed expectation while the one they hope for is already near.
ALSO GROWS
lýtron: A ransom paid to set someone free.
λύτρον
This makes the release in “redeemed” more concrete: something that holds a person is answered by a price that frees them.
lýtrōsis: The act of ransoming or setting free.
λύτρωσις
This noun appears in the earlier song about redemption in Luke, connecting the travelers’ hope with a release already named in the Gospel.
apolýtrōsis: Release from captivity or a claim, by ransom.
ἀπολύτρωσις
The added prefix does not erase the ransom-root; it gives the idea of release a fuller sense of being brought out from what held someone.
ἠλπίζομεν
ēlpízomen
GROWS FROM
ἐλπ-
elp-
Hope or expectation directed toward what is anticipated.
“had been expecting” in this verse is ēlpízomen. The word rendered “trusted” means “we were hoping” or “we were expecting,” from ἐλπίζω (elpízō, hope or expect). Their sorrow turns on a future they pictured: the expected deliverance seems not to have come.
ALSO GROWS
elpís: Hope; what is anticipated.
ἐλπίς
The noun makes explicit the forward-looking expectation carried by “we trusted.”
elpizómena: Things being hoped for or expected.
ἐλπιζόμενα
This form in Hebrews 11:1 names the hoped-for things themselves, illuminating how the travelers’ expectation had a particular outcome in view.
THE PATTERN
Redemption is release from what holds a person or people in bondage.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he has redeemed from the hand of the one who presses.Who gave himself for us, that he might loose us from all living without boundary, and cleanse for himself a people that is his own, burning for good works.THE THREAD
Let the LORD God of Israel be spoken well of, for he has looked upon and redeemed his people,Luke 1:68 uses the same λυτρ- (lytr-, ransom and release) word family as “redeemed” here. The travelers speak as though that release has failed, while the Gospel’s earlier language ties redemption to God’s visitation among the people.
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