What Does Luke 6:6 Mean?

And it came to be on another sabbath, that he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man whose right hand was dried up.

Luke 6:6 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.

THE KEY

A withered hand stands in the same room as Jesus’ teaching, so bodily limitation is part of the scene where the word is heard.

THE MEANING

Jesus teaches in the synagogue while a man with a withered right hand is there. The scene holds instruction and bodily limitation together in the same room; the man’s condition does not remove him from that shared space.

THE ROOT

ξηρά

xēra

GROWS FROM

ξηρ

⁨ξηρ⁩ (xēr): dry, parched.

“dried up” in this verse is xēra. The Greek word describes the hand through the language of drying: its capacity has withered. The same root reaches beyond a hand to things that dry up, letting the image carry bodily and organic weight without saying how the condition began.

ALSO GROWS

xēros: dry, parched

ξηρός

This adjective shares the ⁨ξηρ⁩ root and shows that the hand is described through the state of dryness.

xērainō: to dry up, wither

ξηραίνω

This verb shares the ⁨ξηρ⁩ root and names the process behind the condition the verse describes.

THE PATTERN

Scripture places weakened bodies in view and speaks of them within the reach of God’s care.

Strengthen the hands that have let go, and steady the knees that buckle.

Isaiah 35:3 · SDVThe prophet names weakened hands and knees openly, placing bodily frailty within a promise of strengthening.

The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.

Psalm 146:8 · SDVThe psalm describes God as acting toward people whose bodies or circumstances leave them bowed down.

And he entered again into the gathering place, and a man was there whose hand had dried up.

Mark 3:1 · SDVMark shows the same scene: Jesus teaches in the synagogue with a man whose hand is withered present.

THE THREAD

If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they burn.

John 15:6 · SDV

The Greek ⁨ξηρ⁩ root also describes a branch that withers, extending the word’s image from a hand to something organic. Luke gives no cause for the man’s condition; the shared root widens the image without assigning blame.

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