What Does Luke 8:42 Mean?
For he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. But as he went, the crowds choked 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
For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him.THE KEY
The crowd does not merely gather around Jesus: the Greek says it presses in with a choking force while a father carries his one, only daughter toward him.
THE MEANING
A crisis remains particular even when the surrounding world presses in. Here, a father carries his only daughter toward help as the crowd closes around Jesus; the pressure is real, but the movement toward her continues.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a crowded, pressured moment makes one person’s need disappear.
THE ROOT
συνέπνιγον
synepnigon from sympnigō
GROWS FROM
πνίγω (pnigō), with συν- (syn-)
To choke or suffocate; with συν-, to press closely together or crowd upon.
“choked him” in this verse is synepnigon from sympnigō. The Greek verb carries a forceful image of compression: the people press around Jesus so tightly that the word can suggest choking. The same verb appears when cares, riches, and pleasures choke the word in Luke 8:14, revealing pressure as something that can obstruct what is moving toward life.
ALSO GROWS
pnigō: To choke, suffocate, or drown.
πνίγω
This base verb gives the crowd’s pressing a physical force beyond simple gathering.
sympnigō: To press upon, crowd tightly, or choke.
συμπνίγω
This is the verb used here and again for what chokes the word in Luke 8:14.
μονογενής
monogenēs
GROWS FROM
μόνος + γένος (monos + genos)
μόνος means one or only; γένος means kind, family, or offspring. Together they describe the sole or unique child.
“only daughter” in this verse is monogenēs. The verse marks the daughter as her father’s one and only, setting one vulnerable life against the many bodies crowding Jesus. Her singularity is part of the scene’s force, not a passing detail.
ALSO GROWS
monos: Alone, sole, or only.
μόνος
It carries the daughter’s singular place in her father’s life.
genos: Kind, family, or offspring.
γένος
It connects her uniqueness to kinship: she is not simply one person in the crowd, but this father’s daughter.
THE PATTERN
What presses in can choke the movement, voice, or growth of what is reaching toward life.
And Jesus went with him, and a great crowd followed him and pressed upon him.Many rebuked him, telling him to hush, but he cried out all the more, Son of David, have compassion on me.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.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 the same verb, συμπνίγω, for the crowd pressing Jesus here and for cares, riches, and pleasures choking the word there. The shared word reveals pressure as a force that closes around what is moving toward life.
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