What Does Luke 7:47 Mean?
Therefore I say to you, her many missed marks are released, for she loved much. But the one to whom little is released loves little.
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
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.THE KEY
Her abundant love is the visible shape of a release already given.
THE MEANING
Your many misses are held in the same sentence as their release: forgiveness is spoken as something accomplished and still standing. The love that becomes visible is proportionate to the release received, so a tangled past does not prevent a full-hearted response now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that her love earns forgiveness dissolves: the preceding debt story presents love as the response to release already received.
THE ROOT
ἀφέωνται
apheōntai
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + ἵημι (apo + hiēmi)
To send away or let go; the verb carries the sense of releasing what is held.
“released” in this verse is apheōntai. The Greek verb is in a perfect form: the release has happened, and its result stands now. English “forgiven” can sound like a verdict alone; this word also opens the image of something being let go.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: release, remission
ἄφεσις
Luke 4:18 uses this same word family for release to captives, opening forgiveness here as a freeing.
aphiēmi: send away, leave, forgive
ἀφίημι
The verb’s range joins forgiving with letting go and sending away, so the many offenses no longer remain held against her.
ἁμαρτίαι
hamartíai
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss, fail.
“missed marks” in this verse is hamartíai. The word for her many sins belongs to a family that speaks of missing and failing. The verse holds those misses plainly, then speaks their release; they are not made her permanent name.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: miss, fail, sin
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb form keeps the idea active: these are failures that can be released, not an identity beyond change.
hamartōlos: sinner, one who misses
ἁμαρτωλός
This related word names a person through the same family, while this verse emphasizes that even many misses are released.
THE PATTERN
Release received makes love visible and becomes a pattern for releasing others.
And since they had nothing to give back, he released them both by favor. Tell me, then, which of them will love him most?I will heal their turning away. I will love them freely, for the burning of my anger has turned from him.And be useful to one another, tender in the inward parts, releasing one another, just as God in the Anointed One has released you.THE THREAD
The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.Luke 4:18 uses ἄφεσις (áphesis, release) for the captives’ deliverance, from the same Greek word family as “forgiven” here. The shared root opens her forgiveness as release from captivity, and her love as the visible shape of that freedom.
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