What Does Luke 8:40 Mean?
Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him gladly, for they were all waiting for him.
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 it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him.THE KEY
Their waiting is not empty space: it becomes a glad welcome when the one whose name means deliverance returns.
THE MEANING
This verse places your waiting beside the arrival you long for: the returning Jesus is met with glad reception, and his name carries the nature of deliverance. Waiting here is shared expectation that opens into welcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that waiting itself proves abandonment: here, those waiting are met by the one they await.
THE ROOT
ἀπεδέξατο
apedexato
GROWS FROM
δέχομαι
dechomai
receive, welcome
“welcomed gladly” in this verse is apedexato. The Greek verb for receiving belongs to a word family of welcome. The sentence makes the waiting the reason for that welcome: expectation takes shape as reception when Jesus returns.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: receive, welcome
δέχομαι
This base verb makes clear that the welcome is a reception of someone, not just a reaction to his arrival.
hypodechomai: welcome, receive as a guest
ὑποδέχομαι
Luke 19:6 uses this related form when Zacchaeus joyfully receives Jesus, echoing the welcome in this verse.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
yasha
deliver, bring out from constriction into spaciousness
“Jesus” in this verse is Yeshua. The name carries the nature of deliverance. The one the people await is not merely someone returning; his name itself names the movement out of narrowness.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun from the same root makes explicit the nature carried in the name Jesus.
hoshia: he delivered, brought out
הוֹשִׁיעַ
This verb shows the root as an act of bringing out, illuminating what the awaited one embodies.
THE PATTERN
Waiting for a person or promise takes form as reception when the awaited presence arrives.
Be stretched toward the LORD; hold fast, and he makes your heart firm; be stretched toward the LORD.And look, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was aligned and reverent, awaiting the comfort of Israel, and the Set-Apart Breath was upon him.And he hurried and came down, and took him in rejoicing.THE THREAD
And he hurried and came down, and took him in rejoicing.The Greek word translated “received” here and in Luke 8:40 belongs to the same dechomai word family of receiving and welcoming. In both scenes, Jesus returns into a life already opening to receive him.
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