What Does Luke 3:18 Mean?
And with many other things he urged the people, and brought them good news.
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 many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.THE KEY
The same speech that urges people forward also carries comfort and good news.
THE MEANING
Here, the word that reaches you can urge and comfort at once. It can name a direction and arrive as good news, so challenge and consolation belong together in one message. The verse holds them in a single act of speaking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an urgent or challenging word cannot also be good news: John’s exhortation is also his announcement of good news.
THE ROOT
παρακαλῶν
parakalōn
GROWS FROM
παρακαλ- (parakal-, the παρακαλέω word family)
Urge, appeal, encourage, or console.
“urged” in this verse is parakalōn. The Greek participle behind “exhortation” is parakalōn, a form of parakaleō, whose range includes urging and comforting. In Isaiah 40:1, the same word family carries the sense of “Comfort ye,” showing how an appeal can steady someone as it calls them forward.
ALSO GROWS
paraklēsis: Appeal, encouragement, or consolation
παράκλησις
This related noun shows that the exhortation in the verse can carry both an appeal and comfort.
paraklētos: Advocate or helper
παράκλητος
This related word reflects the supportive dimension of the same word family.
εὐηγγελίζετο
euēngelizeto
GROWS FROM
εὐαγγελ-
euangel-
Announce good news; carry a glad message. The family joins εὖ (eu, good) with the messenger word ἄγγελος (angelos).
“brought good news” in this verse is euēngelizeto. The verb translated “preached” is euangelizomai: to announce good news. Its word family links the announcement to a messenger, so John’s urging is also glad news being carried to the people.
ALSO GROWS
euangelion: Good news, gospel
εὐαγγέλιον
This noun names the message John announces in the verse.
angelos: Messenger
ἄγγελος
The related messenger word makes the act of preaching a carrying of news to its hearers.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s appeal can steady and summon people at the same time.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, urged the brethren with many words, and steadied them.As you know how we urged, soothed, and bore witness to each one of you, as a father does his own children.THE THREAD
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.In the Greek Septuagint, “Comfort ye” uses the parakaleō word family behind John’s “exhortation.” The same word that urges people forward can also console them, opening the verse’s announcement as both appeal and comfort.
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