What Does Luke 9:1 Mean?
Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to heal diseases.
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 he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.THE KEY
The same power reaches both what oppresses and what sickens: it confronts devils with authority and meets disease with care.
THE MEANING
Oppression and bodily disease both fall within the reach of the power given here: authority confronts the former, while healing attends the latter. The verse holds them together as one commission, placing care for the body within the same field as deliverance from what oppresses.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that spiritual oppression can be met while sickness lies outside that same work; the verse places both within the reach of the commission.
THE ROOT
θεραπεύειν
therapeuein
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
therapeu-
To attend to, tend, treat, or heal.
“heal” in this verse is therapeuein. English “cure” can sound like a result; the verb here also carries the sense of attending to or treating someone. The power in the verse is expressed not only as authority over devils, but as attentive care for sick bodies.
ALSO GROWS
therapeuō: To attend, serve, treat, or heal.
θεραπεύω
The infinitive in this verse comes from this verb, making healing an act of care.
therapeia: Attendance, care, or healing treatment.
θεραπεία
This word from the same family describes the healing of the nations in Revelation 22:2, where care extends beyond individual bodies.
δύναμιν
dynamin
GROWS FROM
δυν-
dyn-
Ability, being able, capacity to act.
The word names capacity, not simply rank or force. Given together with authority, this power describes both the ability to act and the reach to confront what oppresses and afflicts.
ALSO GROWS
dynatos: Able, capable, powerful.
δυνατός
The related word names the capacity to act that this commission puts to work against devils and disease.
dynamoō: To strengthen or empower.
δυναμόω
This related verb shows the same root as an ability that enables action.
THE PATTERN
Power that meets affliction expresses itself as care, reaching from individual bodies to whole communities.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And heal those without strength who are there, and say to them, The governance of God has drawn near to you.In the middle of its broad way, and on either bank of the river, is the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, giving back its fruit with each moon. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.THE THREAD
And heal those without strength who are there, and say to them, The governance of God has drawn near to you.Luke 10:9 uses the same Greek verb θεραπεύω (therapeuō, to attend, treat, or heal) for healing the sick. That care appears alongside the announcement that the kingdom of God has come near, placing bodily healing within the same work of nearness.
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