What Does Luke 5:18 Mean?
And look, men were carrying a man on a couch, a man who was loosed in his limbs, and they sought to carry him in and lay him down before him.
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, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.THE KEY
His inability to move does not stop the movement toward Jesus; others carry him where he cannot go alone.
THE MEANING
Your limits do not seal you off from help; people beside you can carry you within reach when you cannot get there by yourself. The verse holds dependence and agency together: the man is carried, while those around him actively seek a way to place him before Jesus.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that if you cannot reach help on your own, no way is open to you.
THE ROOT
παραλελυμένος
paralelumenos
GROWS FROM
λύω (lyō), within παραλύω (paralýō)
λύω (lyō) means “loose, release, untie”; παραλύω (paralýō) describes disabling or paralyzing.
“loosed in his limbs” in this verse is paralelumenos. The word for the man’s impaired movement contains the base λύω (lyō, “loose, release, untie”), leaving an echo of loosening inside the description of his condition. That echo opens a connection English “palsy” does not carry, without making this verse promise a cure.
ALSO GROWS
apolýō: Release, dismiss.
ἀπολύω
This compound makes the release sense of λύω (lyō, “loose, release, untie”) audible alongside the word describing the man’s condition.
katalýō: Take down, dismantle.
καταλύω
This branch also grows from λύω (lyō, “loose, release, untie”); it shows how the same base can name different forms of loosening.
φέροντες
pherontes
GROWS FROM
φέρω
pherō
φέρω (pherō) means “carry, bear, bring.”
“brought” in this verse is pherontes. Luke uses the carrying word φέρω (pherō, “carry, bear, bring”) for the men who bring him, then repeats its family in “bring him in.” The verse’s movement belongs to the people around him as much as to the man they carry.
ALSO GROWS
eispherō: Bring in.
εἰσφέρω
This is the verb behind “bring him in,” repeating the carrying root as the men seek a way inside.
prospherō: Bring toward, offer.
προσφέρω
This compound extends the same carrying root into bringing something toward another; here, their aim is to set the man before Jesus.
THE PATTERN
When one person cannot reach help alone, shared carrying can bring that person within reach.
For if they fall, the one raises up the one joined to him. But woe to the one who falls with no second to gird him.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.And they came to him, bringing a paralyzed man, lifted by four.THE THREAD
And they came to him, bringing a paralyzed man, lifted by four.Mark uses the same Greek word family παραλυτ- (paralyt-, “paralyzed”) and the same verb φέρω (pherō, “carry, bear, bring”) in “bringing one.” Mark names four bearers; Luke shows their continued effort to find a way to place him before Jesus.
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