What Does Luke 7:9 Mean?
When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd following him, I say to you, I have not found such trust, no, not even in Israel.
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
When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.THE KEY
The trust Jesus calls great is a full-weight reliance on his authority, so his word reaches the servant even across distance.
THE MEANING
Trust here is lived reliance: the centurion places the outcome under Jesus’ authority without requiring his physical presence. Jesus marvels at this trust and names it greater than any he has found in Israel. The verse makes its depth visible now wherever trust rests on his word before sight confirms it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that trust requires physical proximity or visible proof: the centurion relies on Jesus’ authority at a distance.
THE ROOT
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
Trust, reliance; the quality of being trustworthy or firm.
The Greek word holds trust as active reliance, a leaning of one’s full weight. The centurion’s trust rests on Jesus’ authority, so the spoken word reaches across distance.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: To trust, believe, or entrust oneself.
πιστεύω
The verb shows trust as something enacted: the centurion relies on Jesus’ authority.
pistos: Trustworthy, faithful, dependable.
πιστός
The same πιστ- family joins the act of trusting to the character deemed dependable; the centurion’s trust rests on Jesus’ authority.
THE PATTERN
Trust rests on the authority of God’s word before the promised outcome is visible.
And he leaned his weight on the LORD, and he counted it to him as alignment.Jesus said to him, Go on your way; your son lives. And the man trusted the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and he went on his way.Now trust is the footing beneath things hoped for, the proof of things unseen.THE THREAD
Now trust is the footing beneath things hoped for, the proof of things unseen.The Greek word translated “faith” here is πίστις, the same word used in Luke 7:9. Hebrews describes the unseen ground of trust; the centurion shows that trust resting on Jesus’ authority across distance.
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