What Does Luke 8:33 Mean?
Then the demons went out of the man and entered into the swine, and the herd rushed headlong down the cliff into the lake, and they were choked in it.
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
Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.THE KEY
What leaves the man does not disappear: the same force enters the herd and carries it into the lake.
THE MEANING
The scene holds release and destruction together: what leaves the man enters the herd, which rushes into the lake and dies. Leaving one body does not erase the destructive force; here its direction changes, and the harm becomes visible in the herd.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that once what torments someone leaves, the danger is over.
THE ROOT
ἐξῆλθον
exēlthon
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
to come or go
“went out / entered” in this verse is exēlthon. Both movements are built from the same verb: ἐξῆλθον (exēlthon, “went out”) marks movement outward, while εἰσῆλθον (eisēlthon, “entered”) marks movement inward. The shared verb makes the shift plain: the force changes where it acts, rather than simply vanishing.
ALSO GROWS
exerchomai: to go out, depart
ἐξέρχομαι
It names the movement away from the man.
eiserchomai: to go in, enter
εἰσέρχομαι
It names the movement into the herd, completing the transfer.
ἀπεπνίγη
apepnigē
GROWS FROM
πνίγω
pnigō
to choke, strangle, or suffocate
“choked in it” in this verse is apepnigē. The verb can describe choking that ends in drowning, joining the action in the lake to the image of breath cut off. Luke uses the same root family for seeds crowded out by thorns and hearers choked by life’s cares, so the word holds literal suffocation and life hemmed in by pressure together.
ALSO GROWS
apopnigō: to choke off, suffocate, drown
ἀποπνίγω
This form describes the herd’s choking in the lake.
sympnigō: to choke, press in around
συμπνίγω
Luke uses this related form for thorns choking seed and cares choking what has been heard.
THE PATTERN
A living thing can be choked out when surrounding forces leave it no room to continue.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.Those who fell among the thorns are the ones who hear, and as they go on their way, they are choked by cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to ripeness.I sink in the mire of waters, where there is no footing. I come into the depths of waters, and the flood sweeps over me.THE THREAD
Those who fell among the thorns are the ones who hear, and as they go on their way, they are choked by cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to ripeness.Luke uses συμπνίγω (sympnigō, “choke, press in around”), from the same root as ἀπεπνίγη (apepnigē, “was choked”), for cares choking what has been heard. The shared root holds the herd’s physical drowning beside the inward image of life crowded by what surrounds it.
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