What Does Luke 7:49 Mean?
And those who were reclining at table with him began to say within themselves, Who is this who releases missed marks also?
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 they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?THE KEY
The question turns forgiveness into a revelation: releasing what a person has missed exposes who has authority over them.
THE MEANING
The question still rises whenever what you have missed is treated as a claim that cannot be lifted: who can release it? This verse puts the force of that question on identity and authority, because the one who lets go of the charge changes what can be said about the person. Your missing does not have to remain the final word over you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The things you miss permanently define your nature and can never be released.
THE ROOT
ἀφίησιν
aphiēsin
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apo, away) + ἵημι (hiēmi, send or let go)
To send away, let go, or leave; by extension, to remit or forgive.
“releases missed marks” in this verse is aphiēsin. The Greek verb names an act of letting go or sending away. Its noun ἄφεσις is also used for release from captivity, so forgiveness and liberation share one image.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission, deliverance.
ἄφεσις
In Luke 4:18, this same noun is translated both “deliverance” and “liberty,” linking the release of a charge with release from captivity.
aphentes: Having let go or left behind.
ἀφέντες
Matthew 4:20 uses this form for the disciples who “left” their nets, showing the same verb can describe a concrete act of letting go.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartias
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss, err, or go wrong.
The word translated “sins” names what is missed or has gone wrong; it does not have to become a permanent identity. The question is whether the missing can be released, so the person is no longer collapsed into it.
ALSO GROWS
hamartēma: An act of missing or a wrong.
ἁμάρτημα
This branch names the act itself, keeping attention on what went wrong rather than making it the whole person.
hamartōlos: A wrongdoer, one characterized by missing.
ἁμαρτωλός
This branch can label a person by the missing; the release in this verse opens the possibility that the label does not have the final word.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, release sends away what binds a person, whether it is captivity or the burden of missing.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.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.Whose shortcomings you release, they are released to them; whose shortcomings you hold fast, they are held fast.THE THREAD
But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority upon the earth to release shortcomings, he said to the one who was loosed, To you I say, rise up, lift up your couch, and go into your house.Luke 5:24 answers the question with the same verb, ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, release or forgive): the Son of Man has authority on earth to do this. What sounds like an invisible release is placed beside a person rising, carrying his couch, and going home.
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