What Does Luke 4:40 Mean?
When the sun was sinking, all who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on each one of them, and healed them.
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
Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.THE KEY
Healing here is care made bodily: Jesus lays hands on each person, one by one.
THE MEANING
Sickness is met as a bodily reality, and each person is within reach of touch and healing. “Every one” makes the care particular: no one disappears into the crowd.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a crowd’s suffering makes each person’s need invisible: healing reaches “every one” individually.
THE ROOT
ἐθεράπευσεν
etherapeusen
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
therapeu-
To attend to, care for, or serve; in this context, to heal.
“healed” in this verse is etherapeusen. The verb carries attending and healing within the same word, presenting healing as active care. With “every one,” that care reaches each body rather than remaining general.
ALSO GROWS
therapeia: Care, service, or healing.
θεραπεία
The related noun holds care and healing together, echoing the way touch and healing meet in this verse.
therapōn: An attendant or servant.
θεράπων
This related word for one who attends makes visible the care within the act of healing.
ἀσθενοῦντας
asthenountas
GROWS FROM
ἀ- + σθεν- (a- + sthen-)
Without strength; weak or infirm.
“sick” in this verse is asthenountas. The Greek word names illness through weakness, placing care beside bodily vulnerability without treating weakness as fault. The healing meets a person where strength is diminished.
ALSO GROWS
astheneia: Weakness, infirmity, or sickness.
ἀσθένεια
This related noun can name both bodily weakness and illness, showing the overlap behind the verse’s language of sickness.
asthenēs: Weak or without strength.
ἀσθενής
The adjective shares the same word family and keeps bodily vulnerability in view.
THE PATTERN
Healing reaches bodily weakness through active care, whether by word, compassion, or touch.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And Jesus came out, perceived a great crowd, was stirred in his inner parts toward them, and healed their sick.And a crowd also gathered from the cities all around to Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those pressed upon by unclean breaths, and every one of them was healed.THE THREAD
And a crowd also gathered from the cities all around to Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those pressed upon by unclean breaths, and every one of them was healed.Acts uses the same Greek verb, therapeuō, for healing and again says “every one.” The shared word makes care’s reach unmistakable: the group is many, but the healing is not faceless.
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