What Does Luke 6:14 Mean?
Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew.
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
Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,THE KEY
The list pauses over a naming act: Jesus speaks Peter as a nature-bearing name over Simon, not merely as another label.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you as someone whose name and relationships both carry meaning. Jesus names Simon Peter, while Andrew is named as his brother and remains distinct in the list. Identity here is both spoken and relational.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that a name is only an empty label: Simon’s name is given with intention, and Peter carries the image of a stone.
THE ROOT
ὠνόμασεν
ōnómasen
GROWS FROM
ὀνομ-
Name; the Greek stem behind the act of naming.
“named” in this verse is ōnómasen. The verb for naming shares its stem with ὄνομα (onoma, name): the verse makes the act of naming part of Simon’s identity. Read as nature-bearing, the name Peter reveals something spoken over him, not just a label beside Simon.
ALSO GROWS
onoma: Name
ὄνομα
The noun shares the stem in the verb Luke uses for Jesus naming Simon.
onomazō: To name or call
ὀνομάζω
This is the verb form behind the verse’s naming act.
onomastos: Named, renowned
ὀνομαστός
This adjective shares the name stem and shows how a name can mark a person as known.
Πέτρον
Petron
GROWS FROM
πετρ-
Stone or rock; the shared Greek stem carries the rock image.
Peter is not an unexplained second name: the Greek name belongs to the same word family as πέτρα (petra, rock). The list records the name, while the rock image makes its nature audible.
ALSO GROWS
petra: Rock
πέτρα
This related form makes the stone image in Peter’s name explicit.
petrōdēs: Rocky
πετρώδης
This adjective shares the πετρ- stem and carries the same rock quality.
THE PATTERN
A spoken name can disclose the nature recognized in the person who receives it.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, fixing his gaze on him, said, You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, the rock.The one who has an ear, let him hear and respond to what the breath says to the assemblies. To the one who overcomes I will give to eat from the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble, and upon the pebble a new name written, which no one knows except the one who takes it.THE THREAD
And I also say to you, You are Peter, the stone, and upon this bedrock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.Matthew lets the rock image in Peter’s name sound aloud beside πέτρα (petra, rock). The shared Greek πετρ- family opens the name in Luke as more than an unexplained second name.
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