What Does Luke 5:20 Mean?
And when he saw their trust, he said, Man, your shortcomings are released to you.
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 when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.THE KEY
The verse names forgiveness as release: what a person has missed can be let go rather than held as their permanent claim.
THE MEANING
The reader is addressed as someone whose missing is releasable, not as a person fixed by it. Trust is visible here in the shared carrying of a man who cannot get there alone, and Jesus’ words announce release as already accomplished and still standing. What was missed does not have to remain fastened to the person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what you have missed remains attached to you as an irreversible verdict.
THE ROOT
ἀφέωνταί
aphéōntai
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
To send away, let go, release.
“are released to you” in this verse is aphéōntai. Beneath the familiar word “forgiven” is the movement of sending away, leaving behind, letting go. The Greek form presents this release as accomplished and still standing, so the missing does not remain fastened as his present claim.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, dismissal, remission.
ἄφεσις
This related noun names release directly; in Luke 4:18 it describes liberty for captives.
aphéntes: Having left, let go.
ἀφέντες
Matthew 4:20 uses this form when the disciples leave their nets, making the verb’s letting-go sense concrete.
πίστιν
pístin
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peíthō
To persuade, bring to trust.
The verse calls their trust visible: it has taken form in the shared act of bringing the man to Jesus. Here, trust carries the weight of reliance, not only a statement held in the mind.
ALSO GROWS
peíthō: Persuade, win trust.
πείθω
The related verb links trust with being persuaded or won over, giving the word a relational dimension.
pisteúō: Trust, entrust oneself.
πιστεύω
This related verb shows trust as something a person places, not merely an idea they hold.
ἁμαρτίαι
hamartíai
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartánō
To miss, err, fail.
“your shortcomings” in this verse is hamartíai. The word names what is missing or gone wrong; it does not rename the person. Paired with the release verb, it describes the missing as something that can be let go.
ALSO GROWS
hamartánō: To miss, err, fail.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb keeps the word’s sense of missing or going wrong in view.
hamártēma: A fault, wrong, or failure.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun names a particular wrong, keeping the focus on what happened rather than making it the person’s whole identity.
THE PATTERN
The missing is met by release: it is removed from its former hold rather than made the reader’s permanent identity.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.He will turn back to us, and have compassion on us; he will tread down our crookedness, and you will throw all their shortcomings into the depths of the sea.Let it be known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this one the release of shortcomings is announced to you.THE THREAD
Whose shortcomings you release, they are released to them; whose shortcomings you hold fast, they are held fast.The Greek verb ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, “release, let go”) is translated “forgiven” here and “remit” in John 20:23. John pairs release with retaining, making the word’s opposite a kind of holding fast; Luke speaks release over the man as already standing.
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