What Does Luke 7:48 Mean?
And he said to her, Your missed marks are released.
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 said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.THE KEY
The word translated “forgiven” means released, so the verse speaks of the missing as no longer being held.
THE MEANING
The reader’s failures are named as something that can be released, not as a permanent identity. The sentence declares that release as an accomplished act whose result still stands. The person hearing it now meets release at the point of the missing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a failure must remain attached to the person forever.
THE ROOT
ἀφέωνταί
apheōntai
GROWS FROM
ἵημι (in ἀφίημι)
ἵημι means “send” or “let go”; with ἀπό, it forms ἀφίημι, “send away” or “release.”
The Greek verb here presents her sins as released, with that release already accomplished and still in effect. English “forgiven” carries this movement of letting go beneath its familiar sense.
ALSO GROWS
aphiēmi: to let go, leave, or release
ἀφίημι
This is the verb behind the declaration spoken to her.
áphesis: release, remission
ἄφεσις
This related noun names the same release in Ephesians 1:7.
ἁμαρτίαι
hamartíai
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
The Greek word family carries the sense of missing, failing, or erring.
“missed marks” in this verse is hamartíai. The word translated “sins” belongs to a family that includes the idea of missing or failing. Beside “released,” it shows the verse joining the missing itself to the act of letting go.
ALSO GROWS
hamartánō: to miss, fail, or err
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb makes visible the action beneath the noun used for her sins.
hamártēma: a failure or offense
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun keeps the focus on what has gone wrong, now named as released.
THE PATTERN
What stands as a person’s transgression is described as removed, blotted out, or released.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.I, even I, I AM, the one who wipes away your rebellion for my own sake, and I will not remember your missed marks.And you, being dead in your stumbles and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having released us from all our stumbles.THE THREAD
In him we have our ransom through his blood, the release of our stumbles, according to the riches of his favor.Luke’s “forgiven” and Ephesians’ “forgiveness” belong to the same Greek word family: release. Ephesians pairs that release with the same word for “sins,” making explicit the connection Luke’s sentence holds together.
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