What Does Luke 4:16 Mean?
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been nourished. As was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.
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 he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.THE KEY
The Greek word for “read” belongs to the same word family as “know”, reading brings written words into shared knowing.
THE MEANING
A familiar rhythm brings a person into the gathered assembly, where standing gives the written word a voice the community can hear. Reading carries a text from the page into shared knowing.
THE ROOT
ἀναγνῶναι
anagnōnai
GROWS FROM
γνω-
γνω- (gnō-): knowing, recognizing
The Greek word for reading belongs to the family of knowing and recognizing. Here, standing to read brings what is written into the assembly’s shared knowledge.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: know, recognize
γινώσκω
This verb belongs to the same knowing family carried inside the word for reading.
anagnōsis: reading, public reading
ἀνάγνωσις
This noun names the act of reading and shares the γνω- stem.
gnōsis: knowledge
γνῶσις
This word makes explicit the knowing that the reading family carries.
συναγωγήν
synagōgēn
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
ἄγω (agō): to lead, bring
The word for synagogue belongs to a family built around bringing or gathering. The verse places reading within an assembly, where words are received in common.
ALSO GROWS
agō: lead, bring
ἄγω
This verb supplies the core sense within the word for gathering.
agōgē: leading, conduct
ἀγωγή
This related word shares the ἀγω- form and its sense of leading.
synagōgē: gathering, assembly
συναγωγή
This is the same word family as the verse’s synagogue, with συν- (“together”) joined to the gathering sense.
נָצְרַת
Natsrat
GROWS FROM
נצר
נצר (natsar): to watch, guard, keep
Nazareth carries the root-sense of watching or guarding, so the place-name gives the setting a watchful quality. The verse places public reading within this named home.
ALSO GROWS
natsar: watch, guard, keep
נָצַר
This verb expresses the watchful sense carried by the place-name.
nēṣer: shoot, branch
נֵצֶר
This branch shares the same נ־צ־ר consonants, linking the root’s family to what is kept or growing.
THE PATTERN
A written word becomes shared understanding when it is read into the hearing of a gathered people.
When all Israel comes to see the face of the LORD your God in the place he will choose, you will call out this instruction before all Israel, in their ears.So they read aloud from the scroll of the instruction of God, spread open, and set the sense in place, and caused the people to perceive in the reading.And when this letter is read among you, have it read also in the assembly of the Laodiceans, and you also read the letter from Laodicea.THE THREAD
And after the reading of the instruction and the prophets, the heads of the synagogue sent to them, saying, Men and brothers, if you have any word of urging for the people, speak.Acts uses ἀνάγνωσις (anagnōsis, reading), from the same Greek word family as Luke’s ἀναγνῶναι (anagnōnai, to read). In both verses, shared reading opens a way for words to be heard by the gathered people.
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