What Does Luke 5:21 Mean?
And the scribes and the separated ones began to reason, saying, Who is this one who speaks blasphemies? Who is able to release shortcomings but God alone?
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 the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?THE KEY
The verb rendered “forgive” means “send away,” making the question whether what has been missed can truly be released here.
THE MEANING
You hear a mind protecting a boundary: only God can release what has been missed. The live tension is whether God’s release can be present and visible here.
THE ROOT
ἀφεῖναι
apheinai
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apo, away) + ἵημι (hiēmi, send)
Send away, let go, leave behind.
“release shortcomings” in this verse is apheinai. The verb translated “forgive” carries the movement of sending away or letting go. The question asks who can enact that release; forgiveness appears as an unbinding movement, not merely a change of label.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission, forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This noun from the same word family names the state of being released.
aphietai: Is released, is forgiven; a form of ἀφίημι.
ἀφίεται
The same verb family makes release something that happens to a person, not only an idea about them.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartias
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
Miss, fail, go astray.
English “sins” can sound like a fixed category; hamartia carries the sense of missing or failing to reach a mark. Beside aphiemi, the sentence frames forgiveness as the release of what was missed, rather than a permanent identity.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss, fail, or do wrong.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb makes the “missing” quality of the noun visible as an action.
hamartēma: A misdeed, an act of missing or wrongdoing.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun points to a particular failure that can be released.
THE PATTERN
Release separates a person from what was missed, so the failure is no longer held as an unmovable debt.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.I, even I, I AM, the one who wipes away your rebellion for my own sake, and I will not remember your missed marks.And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.THE THREAD
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority upon the earth to release shortcomings, he said to the one who was loosed, To you I say, rise up, lift up your couch, and go into your house.The question here says release belongs to God; the next verse repeats the same verb, ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), and places that authority on earth. The man’s rising makes the unseen release visible.
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