What Does Luke 6:13 Mean?
And when day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named the sent ones.
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 it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;THE KEY
Apostle is not a rank resting on a person; it is a sending held inside the person’s name.
THE MEANING
Jesus calls learners near, then names some of them by their outward movement: sent ones. The verse speaks now of a life in which receiving and carrying belong together; nearness is not an endpoint but the beginning of a sending.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being chosen is a destination in itself; here the chosen are named for being sent.
THE ROOT
ἀποστόλους
apostolous
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω
apostellō
To send forth or dispatch.
“the sent ones” in this verse is apostolous. The title carries movement outward inside the identity. The people chosen are named for the sending they embody.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: A sent one, a messenger.
ἀπόστολος
This is the title Jesus gives the twelve: their name describes them as people sent forth.
apostolē: A sending, a commission.
ἀποστολή
The related noun makes the sending itself part of what the title carries.
ὠνόμασεν
ōnomasen
GROWS FROM
ὄνομα
onoma
Name; a designation that can carry identity and nature.
The naming does more than distinguish these twelve people. It gives their identity a direction: they are named as the sent ones.
ALSO GROWS
onoma: Name.
ὄνομα
The noun underneath the verb shows that the title is carried as a name, not merely a task.
onomazō: To name or designate.
ὀνομάζω
This related verb expresses the act Luke describes: Jesus gives them the name apostles.
μαθητάς
mathētas
GROWS FROM
μανθάνω
manthanō
To learn.
“disciples” in this verse is mathētas. A disciple is a learner, so the verse moves from learning near Jesus to being named as one sent outward. Learning and sending belong to one unfolding identity.
ALSO GROWS
mathētēs: A learner, a disciple.
μαθητής
The twelve are first described by their relationship to learning before they are named as sent ones.
mathēma: A lesson or what is learned.
μάθημα
This related word keeps the emphasis on learning that can be carried beyond the moment of receiving it.
THE PATTERN
Those gathered close are named by the work that carries them outward.
Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am; send me.Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.THE THREAD
Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.The word behind “apostles” belongs to the same Greek sending family as “hath sent me” here. John opens the title as a living pattern: the sent ones share in a sending that comes from the Father.
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