What Does Luke 3:27 Mean?
Who was the son of Joanna, who was the son of Rhesa, who was the son of Zorobabel, who was the son of Salathiel, who was the son of Neri.
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
Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri,THE KEY
Luke’s Greek leaves “son” unspoken and repeats “of”: each name appears through its relation to another, not in isolation.
THE MEANING
The names stand together in a chain of relations, each linked to what comes before. The verse speaks now of a life connected to lives before it, carrying a story that no one begins alone. Salathiel’s name also holds the sense “I have asked God.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You are wholly self-made and disconnected from every life before yours.
THE ROOT
τοῦ
tou
GROWS FROM
τ-
This is the inflectional stem of the Greek definite article, not a standalone lexical root. In τοῦ, the article is genitive masculine or neuter singular: “of the.”
“of the” in this verse is tou. The Greek verse repeats τοῦ before the names, while leaving “son” unstated. The KJV makes the implied genealogy explicit; the Greek keeps the relation “of” visible at every link.
ALSO GROWS
tēs: of the; genitive feminine singular of the definite article
τῆς
It shares the article’s τ- stem and shows how the article’s ending changes with grammatical gender while marking a relation.
tō: to the or for the; dative masculine or neuter singular of the definite article
τῷ
It belongs to the same inflectional family, showing the τ- stem across a different grammatical relation.
שְׁאַלְתִּיאֵל
She’altiel
GROWS FROM
שאל
To ask or request.
“Salathiel” in this verse is She’altiel. The name combines the root שאל, “ask,” with אל, “God,” and carries the sense “I have asked God.” A name in this chain holds more than ancestry: it carries a request within the lineage.
ALSO GROWS
sha’al: asked, requested
שָׁאַל
It shares the consonants שאל and gives the action carried in Shealtiel’s name.
she’elah: request, question
שְׁאֵלָה
It shares the same root and makes the name’s sense of asking concrete.
THE PATTERN
Lineage is spoken as a chain of named relations, with each generation received through another.
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.Abraham brought forth Isaac, and Isaac brought forth Jacob, and Jacob brought forth Judah and his brothers.Who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God.THE THREAD
Who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God.The chain of names in this verse continues until Luke’s genealogy reaches Adam and then God. That endpoint opens each link, including Salathiel’s, into a larger account of human belonging.
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