What Does Luke 7:2 Mean?
And a servant of a certain commander of a hundred, who was dear to him, was ill and about to reach his end.
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 a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.THE KEY
The verse holds a man’s failing strength beside his worth: he is cherished even as death draws near.
THE MEANING
This verse holds two realities together for the reader now: being deeply valued and being physically near the end can coexist. A failing body does not make a person less dear to the one who loves them. The man’s condition is severe, but it does not erase the bond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that illness or dependence makes someone less worthy of love. The servant is still described as dear to the centurion while his strength fails and death is near.
THE ROOT
ἔντιμος
entimos
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
Honor, value, or worth; the word carries the sense of someone held in high regard.
The word translated “dear” carries the sense of someone highly valued or honored, not merely someone liked. The verse sets that worth beside his failing strength: illness does not erase the bond of regard.
ALSO GROWS
timē: honor, value, or price
τιμή
This branch shows the weight of the centurion’s regard for the servant.
timios: precious, valuable, or honored
τίμιος
It echoes the verse’s picture of someone precious to another even in grave illness.
ἀσθενέω
astheneō
GROWS FROM
σθεν-
Strength; with the privative ἀ- (a-) in ἀσθενέω, the sense becomes “without strength.”
“was sick” in this verse is astheneō. English names the condition as sickness; the Greek word carries the sense of lacking strength. That sharpens the contrast: this man’s strength is failing, yet he remains held in honor.
ALSO GROWS
asthenēs: weak, without strength
ἀσθενής
It makes explicit the weakness contained in the verse’s word for sickness.
astheneia: weakness or infirmity
ἀσθένεια
This related word keeps weakness visible as a condition, without making it the whole identity of the person.
THE PATTERN
A person’s value is not canceled by bodily weakness; Scripture speaks of illness alongside care and love.
The LORD props him up on the couch of faintness, and you turn over all his bed in his sickness.Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, look, the one you love is weak.THE THREAD
Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, look, the one you love is weak.Luke’s verb translated “was sick” is the same Greek verb John uses for Lazarus’s sickness: ἀσθενέω (astheneō), “to be weak or ill.” In both verses, illness is named within a bond of affection, so the condition is real without becoming the person’s whole identity.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us