What Does Luke 4:33 Mean?
And in the synagogue there was a man who had the breath of an unclean demon, and cried out with a loud voice.
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 in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,THE KEY
The verse keeps the man distinct from the unclean pneuma, the breath or spirit, that erupts through his voice.
THE MEANING
A person is inside the gathered community while an unclean presence erupts in a loud cry. The cry is real, but the person is not reduced to the presence speaking through him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a person’s most disturbing voice defines the whole person.
THE ROOT
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
Breath, blowing, or wind; also the unseen presence called spirit.
The Greek word here is pneuma, the same word that can mean breath, wind, or spirit. English gives this occurrence only the word “spirit,” concealing the breath that becomes audible in the man’s cry.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: To breathe or blow.
πνέω
This verb makes the breath sense of pneuma audible in the same word-family.
pneumatikos: Pertaining to breath or spirit.
πνευματικός
This adjective carries the same root into descriptions of what is spiritual.
δαιμονίου
daimoniou
GROWS FROM
δαιμον-
daimon-
A demon or spirit-being.
The Greek here is δαιμονίου (daimoniou, “of a demon”), not διάβολος (diabolos, “the Slanderer”), the word behind “devil” elsewhere. That distinction keeps the verse’s claim specific: it names a demon’s unclean spirit as present with the man, without naming the man as the demon.
ALSO GROWS
daimōn: A demon or spirit-being.
δαίμων
This related noun shows the word-family behind the KJV’s “devil” in this verse.
daimonizomai: To be under demonic influence.
δαιμονίζομαι
This verb describes a condition associated with the presence named here.
ἀκαθάρτου
akathartou
GROWS FROM
καθαρ-
kathar-
Clean or pure.
The adjective is formed against καθαρός (katharos, “clean” or “pure”). The description attaches to the spirit; the verse says the man has this unclean presence, not that “unclean” defines the man himself.
ALSO GROWS
katharos: Clean or pure.
καθαρός
This is the clean state against which “unclean” is named.
katharizō: To cleanse or make clean.
καθαρίζω
This verb shows the same root describing the movement toward cleanness.
THE PATTERN
An unseen presence in a person becomes recognizable through its effects, while scripture can name the person and presence separately.
And the LORD God shaped the ground-being, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.But the breath of the LORD turned aside from Saul, and a harmful breath from the LORD shook him.And as we went toward prayer, a servant girl held by a breath of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by divining.THE THREAD
And when he had said this, he breathed into them, and said to them, Take in the Set-Apart Breath.The Greek word behind “Ghost” is πνεῦμα (pneuma), the same word used for the spirit in Luke 4:33, and Jesus first breathes on the disciples. English separates “breathed” from “Ghost,” while Greek keeps the breath-and-spirit word close at hand; each verse shows the presence through what it produces.
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