What Does Luke 5:1 Mean?
And it happened, as the crowd pressed upon him to hear the word of God, that he stood beside the lake of Gennesaret.
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 it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,THE KEY
The hunger to hear God’s word has weight: the crowd physically presses in around the one speaking.
THE MEANING
The desire to hear reaches beyond thought and takes up space: the people press close to Jesus. Hearing here is embodied and communal, gathered at the water’s edge.
THE ROOT
ἐπίκειμαι
epikeimai
GROWS FROM
κεῖμαι
To lie, be placed, or be situated.
“pressed upon” in this verse is epikeimai. English “pressed” can sound like a crowd-management detail, but this verb is built on a root meaning to lie or be placed: the listeners’ desire takes the form of bodies close against Jesus. This root also appears in words for reclining or being set before someone, making the scene’s act of hearing physically situated rather than abstract.
ALSO GROWS
keimai: To lie, be placed, or be situated.
κεῖμαι
This is the base verb beneath “pressed upon,” and it also describes the infant lying in a manger in Luke 2:12.
epikeimai: To lie upon, press upon, or be imposed.
ἐπίκειμαι
This is the form used here: the crowd’s nearness to Jesus is conveyed as physical pressure.
anakeimai: To recline, especially at a meal.
ἀνάκειμαι
This related form shows the same root describing a body’s position, reinforcing that the verse presents listening as something lived in the body.
THE PATTERN
When people seek God’s word, they gather toward the place where it is spoken.
And all the people gathered as one man into the broad place before the waters gate, and they said to Ezra the writer to bring the scroll of the instruction of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel.Straightway many gathered, so that there was no room left to hold them, not even by the door, and he spoke the word to them.At that very hour I sent to you; and you have done well in coming alongside. Now, then, we are all here before God, to hear all that has been commanded you by the Lord.THE THREAD
And this will be a sign for you, that you will find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.The verb behind “lying” is κεῖμαι (keimai, “lie or be placed”), the base inside ἐπίκειμαι (epikeimai, “lie upon or press upon”) in Luke 5:1. One verse places the infant in a manger; the other places listeners against Jesus, and the shared root makes both scenes bodily acts of nearness.
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