What Does Luke 4:38 Mean?
And he rose out of the synagogue, and entered Simon's house. Simon's wife's mother was gripped by a great fever, and they asked him on her behalf.
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 arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.THE KEY
The Greek calls the fever a fire and the woman held by it, while the scene carries the sacred directly into her home.
THE MEANING
The verse places worship and private illness in the same present field: Jesus leaves the synagogue and enters Simon’s home, where a woman’s body is under a great fever. Those around her appeal for her, and her need is named without disguise. The sacred meets the reader in the place where bodily suffering is happening.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that the sacred belongs only in the synagogue dissolves here: Jesus enters a home where someone is gravely ill.
THE ROOT
πυρετῷ
pyretō
GROWS FROM
πῦρ
pyr
Fire; burning heat.
The Greek word πυρετός (pyretos), meaning fever, is formed from πῦρ (pyr), meaning fire. The verse names her condition through burning heat, not as a vague weakness.
ALSO GROWS
pyr: Fire.
πῦρ
The fever word grows from this fire word, placing heat at the center of its image.
pyróō: To burn or set on fire.
πυρόω
This verb carries the same fire seed and makes the burning behind the fever’s name visible.
συνεχομένη
synechomenē
GROWS FROM
συνέχω
synechō
To hold fast, press upon, or constrain.
“gripped by” in this verse is synechomenē. The form translated “taken with” means being held or pressed by something. The fever is pictured as a force constraining her; the next verse says it leaves, and she rises.
ALSO GROWS
synechō: To hold, press, or constrain.
συνέχω
This verb is the base of the form used here and shows the pressure carried by “taken with.”
synochē: Pressure, distress, or anguish.
συνοχή
This related noun shows how the same word family can name the distress of being pressed in.
παρεκάλουν
parekaloun
GROWS FROM
παρακαλέω
parakaleō
To urge or appeal; also to comfort or console.
“besought” in this verse is parekaloun. Here the verb means they appeal to Jesus for her. Its word family also names consolation, holding appeal and comfort within the same linguistic field without turning the plea into a comfort already received.
ALSO GROWS
paraklēsis: Appeal or consolation.
παράκλησις
This related noun can name both an appeal and consolation, linking the plea for her with the possibility of comfort.
paraklētos: Advocate, helper, or comforter.
παράκλητος
This related word names one who helps or comforts, extending the family’s movement from appeal toward aid.
THE PATTERN
Healing meets bodily need where it is brought into the open, and restoration is pictured as release and rising.
Who releases all your crookedness; who heals all your sicknesses.And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it let go of her, and at once she rose and served them.THE THREAD
And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it let go of her, and at once she rose and served them.The Greek πυρετῷ (pyretō), meaning fever, appears in both verses and is tied to πῦρ (pyr), meaning fire. Here the great heat holds her; in the next verse Jesus rebukes that same fever, it leaves, and she rises.
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