What Does Luke 5:14 Mean?
And he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest, and bring near the offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a testimony to 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
And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.THE KEY
The cleansed body is kept silent to the crowd but made visible as testimony: restoration here is shown, not announced.
THE MEANING
The verse holds silence and visibility together: the change is not announced to everyone, yet the cleansed body is shown where it can be recognized. The priestly showing and commanded offering give the cleansing a concrete form as testimony. What has changed is witnessed through what is present, not merely claimed in words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a real change must be publicly announced to be recognized: here, speech to the crowd is restrained while the priest receives a visible testimony.
THE ROOT
καθαρισμός
katharismós
GROWS FROM
καθαρ-
kathar-
The Greek word family for clean and cleansing; here, purification or a cleansed condition.
This family names both the clean state and the act of making clean. In this verse, cleansing is not left as a private impression: the changed condition is presented where it can be recognized.
ALSO GROWS
katharós: clean, pure
καθαρός
Names the state of being clean toward which the cleansing points.
katharízō: cleanse, purify
καθαρίζω
Names the action from the same word family, linking the act of cleansing with the resulting condition.
μαρτύριον
martýrion
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
Witness or attestation; something that bears witness.
“Testimony” can sound like an abstract statement, but this word belongs to the Greek family of witness. The restored body is itself part of what attests to the change when it is shown to the priest.
ALSO GROWS
mártys: witness
μάρτυς
Names the person who bears witness, making the verse’s testimony relational rather than merely abstract.
martyreō: bear witness, testify
μαρτυρέω
Names the act of witnessing that the cleansed person’s presentation enacts.
προσένεγκε
prosénenke
GROWS FROM
φέρω (pherō), with προσ- (pros-, “toward”)
φέρω means bring or carry; προσφέρω means bring toward, present, or offer.
“bring near the offering” in this verse is prosénenke. The Greek verb translated “offer” carries the sense of bringing something forward or presenting it. The commanded offering is therefore part of the visible act that accompanies the cleansing and bears witness to it.
ALSO GROWS
prosphérō: bring toward, present, offer
προσφέρω
The dictionary form of the verb in the verse; its προσ- prefix adds the sense of bringing toward.
prosphorá: offering, presentation
προσφορά
The related noun keeps the idea of something brought forward as an offering.
THE PATTERN
Cleansing and healing become legible through a changed body that can be seen and witnessed.
This shall be the instruction for the one struck in the skin, on the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest.And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against it.THE THREAD
And when he saw them, he said to them, Go, present yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass, that as they went, they were cleansed.Luke uses the same Greek cleansing family: the noun καθαρισμός (katharismós), “cleansing,” here and the verb καθαρίζω (katharízō), “cleanse,” there. The parallel keeps the priestward showing in view, while adding that the men are cleansed as they go.
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