What Does Luke 4:14 Mean?
And Jesus returned in the power of the breath into Galilee, and the sound of him went out through all the region round about.
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 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.THE KEY
The breath moving through Jesus does not remain inward: it moves him into Galilee, and the report of him moves outward through the region.
THE MEANING
Jesus moves into Galilee in the power of the breath, and word of him spreads through the surrounding region. What moves through him becomes audible beyond him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The claim that what is spiritual must stay private dissolves here: the breath’s movement becomes publicly heard across a region.
THE ROOT
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ- (from πνέω, pnéō)
Breath; to breathe or blow, as wind blows.
The Greek word rendered “Spirit” also carries the sense of breath and wind, holding them together in one word. Here, the power moving Jesus into Galilee is breath in motion, and its reach becomes audible in the report that spreads.
ALSO GROWS
pnéō: To breathe or blow.
πνέω
The verb gives the word its motion: the breath is active, moving through the scene.
pnoē: Breath or blowing.
πνοή
This related word keeps breath tangible and connected to the force of wind.
δύναμις
dynamis
GROWS FROM
δυνα- (from δύναμαι, dýnamai)
To be able; to have capacity or strength.
Power here carries the sense of ability put into action. It moves Jesus into Galilee, where the report of him reaches beyond him.
ALSO GROWS
dynatos: Able, capable, or powerful.
δυνατός
The shared root ties power to the capacity to act.
dynamoō: To strengthen or empower.
δυναμόω
This branch shows capacity being strengthened for action.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
yasha
To deliver, bringing out from constriction into spaciousness.
The Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), used here for Jesus, carries the Hebrew name Yeshua, rooted in yasha: deliverance. The name itself holds the nature of being brought out, while the verse shows Jesus moving into Galilee in the breath’s power.
ALSO GROWS
yāshaʿ: To deliver or bring out.
יָשַׁע
This verb names the deliverance held in Yeshua’s name.
yeshuʿah: Deliverance or rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
This related noun gives the name’s root meaning as an unfolding reality.
THE PATTERN
God’s breath moves, and its effects become visible as life, renewal, and witness.
And the earth was unshaped and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the breath of God was fluttering over the face of the waters.You send out your breath, and they are created; you renew the face of the ground.But you will take hold of power when the Set-Apart Breath comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the farthest edge of the ground.THE THREAD
The breath blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so is everyone who is born of breath.The KJV renders πνεῦμα (pneuma, “breath” or “wind”) first as “wind” and then as “Spirit.” That single word lets the breath in Luke move like wind: Jesus returns in its power, and the resulting report moves through Galilee.
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