What Does Luke 5:15 Mean?
But the word about him went through all the more, and great crowds came together to hear and to be healed of their lack of strength.
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
But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.THE KEY
Here, healing is care received: the report about Jesus gathers people who arrive with weakness to hear and be attended to.
THE MEANING
Your need for care and your need to hear belong in the same approach to Jesus. The crowd comes with weakness, and the word translated “healed” also carries the sense of being attended to or cared for. The verse holds bodily need within the reach of his presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that weakness disqualifies you from drawing near: the people gather while carrying infirmities.
THE ROOT
θεραπευθῆναι
therapeuthēnai
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
therapeu-
To attend to or care for; by extension, to treat or heal.
The verb joins healing with attentive care: the crowd comes to be healed by him, receiving his care. English “healed” can sound like a result alone; the Greek also brings the attending itself into view.
ALSO GROWS
therapeuō: to attend to, care for, treat, or heal
θεραπεύω
This is the verb family behind the verse’s “to be healed,” making care part of the word’s sense.
therapeia: care, treatment, or healing
θεραπεία
Its shared stem keeps healing connected with the act of tending to someone.
λόγος
logos
GROWS FROM
λεγ-
leg-
To say or tell; the word λόγος can mean a word, account, or report.
“fame” in this verse is logos. Luke describes a report about Jesus spreading: the crowd gathers because a word is traveling. The movement begins with what is said about him and reaches people who come to hear for themselves.
ALSO GROWS
legō: to say or tell
λέγω
This verb shares the stem and grounds λόγος in speaking or telling.
logos: word, account, or report
λόγος
It is the word Luke uses for what goes abroad concerning Jesus.
ἀσθενείαις
astheneiais
GROWS FROM
ἀσθεν-
asthen-
Weakness or lack of strength; the word can also refer to illness.
“lack of strength” in this verse is astheneiais. The people arrive with what makes them weak, not with a qualification they must overcome first. The verse places that weakness alongside hearing and the care Jesus gives.
ALSO GROWS
asthenēs: weak or without strength
ἀσθενής
The adjective names the condition carried in the noun translated “infirmities.”
astheneō: to be weak or ill
ἀσθενέω
This related verb shows the same word family describing weakness as a lived condition.
THE PATTERN
A word of healing travels outward and brings people with weakness within reach of care.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And the sound of him went out through all Syria, and they carried to him all who were ill, held by many-colored sicknesses and torments, and those gripped by demons, and those struck by the moon, and those who were paralyzed, and he healed them.And he came down with them and stood on level ground, with the company of his disciples and a great crowd of people from all of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases.THE THREAD
And the sound of him went out through all Syria, and they carried to him all who were ill, held by many-colored sicknesses and torments, and those gripped by demons, and those struck by the moon, and those who were paralyzed, and he healed them.Matthew uses the same Greek verb, θεραπεύω (therapeuō), meaning to attend to or care for as well as to heal. In both verses, a report travels and people carrying illness are gathered into that care.
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