What Does Luke 6:17 Mean?
And he came down with them and stood on level ground, with the company of his disciples and a great crowd of people from all of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases.
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 he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judæa and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;THE KEY
The verse puts hearing and healing on the same footing: the crowd comes with both needs at once.
THE MEANING
You can need to hear and still need healing; these needs do not cancel each other. The one who comes down stands on level ground among people arriving from near and far, holding listening and restoration within one approach.
THE ROOT
ἰαθῆναι
iathēnai
GROWS FROM
ἰα-
ia-
Heal, cure
“healed” in this verse is iathēnai. The verse names healing as a reason for coming alongside hearing, not as an afterthought. The Greek word family links the act of healing with healing itself and the healer.
ALSO GROWS
iasis: Healing, cure
ἴασις
This related noun makes restoration itself part of the same word family as being healed.
iatros: Physician, healer
ἰατρός
The family holds the one who heals alongside the act of healing.
ἀκοῦσαι
akousai
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
Hear, listen
“hear” in this verse is akousai. The verse pairs hearing with being healed as reasons for coming. This Greek family can also extend into heeding elsewhere, though this verse names hearing without requiring that added sense.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; a report or message heard
ἀκοή
It shows the same root can name both the act of hearing and what is heard.
hypakouō: Heed, obey
ὑπακούω
This related verb shows how hearing can carry the sense of response in other contexts, while the verse itself simply says they come to hear.
THE PATTERN
The movement toward restoration brings hearing and healing together as ways people come toward life.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.Bend your ear and come to me. Hear and respond, and your living soul shall live. I will cut a covenant of the ages with you, the steady faithful loves of David.But the word about him went through all the more, and great crowds came together to hear and to be healed of their lack of strength.THE THREAD
And the whole crowd sought to touch him, for strength went out from him and healed them all.The word rendered “healed” here and in the next verse belongs to ἰάομαι (iaomai, to heal or cure). Verse 17 names healing as one reason the people come; verse 19 shows the whole multitude receiving it.
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