What Does Luke 7:45 Mean?
You gave me no kiss, but this woman, since I came in, has not left off kissing my feet.
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
Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.THE KEY
The greeting Simon withholds reappears as affection the woman keeps giving at Jesus’ feet.
THE MEANING
The verse places a missing sign of welcome beside affection that does not stop. It makes welcome visible through repeated, tangible care.
THE ROOT
φίλημα
philēma
GROWS FROM
φιλε- (phile-), from φιλέω (phileō)
Affection, fondness, love.
The kiss Simon does not give is φίλημα, from the same affection-family as φιλέω; the woman’s verb, καταφιλέω, describes kissing with emphasis. The contrast makes affection visible as repeated touch, not merely a greeting Simon omits.
ALSO GROWS
philos: Friend, beloved.
φίλος
The shared root links friendship with the affection carried in the kiss.
philia: Affection, friendship.
φιλία
This branch makes clear that the kiss belongs to a wider language of personal affection.
THE PATTERN
Welcome becomes visible through embodied affection, while its absence exposes a contrast.
And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.Embrace one another with a set-apart kiss. The assemblies of the anointed one embrace you.THE THREAD
And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.Luke 15:20 uses the same compound verb, καταφιλέω (kataphileō), for the father’s kiss. The shared root joins the woman’s continuing kisses at Jesus’ feet with a father’s embodied welcome of his returning son.
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