What Does Luke 9:11 Mean?
And the crowds, when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spoke to them of the governance of God, and healed those who had need of healing.
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 the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.THE KEY
The verse names healing twice: first as the care people need, then as the restoring act they receive, and Jesus welcomes them before either.
THE MEANING
You are received before your need is met. God’s governance reaches you through speech and healing that answers the need already present. Your bodily need is taken seriously here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must be healed before you can be welcomed.
THE ROOT
θεραπείας
therapeias
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
therapeu-
Attending to, caring for, or treating; the word family also carries the sense of medical treatment and healing.
The healing people need is named with a Greek word that also means care or treatment. The verse then shifts to a different Greek word for the healing Jesus gives, holding needed care and restoration together.
ALSO GROWS
therapeuō: Attend to, care for, treat, or heal.
θεραπεύω
This verb shows the care and treatment held within the word for the people’s need.
therapeutēs: An attendant or caretaker.
θεραπευτής
This related word keeps the sense of attending to someone alongside the sense of treatment.
ἰᾶτο
iato
GROWS FROM
ἰα- (ia-), from ἰάομαι (iaomai)
To heal or cure.
“healed” in this verse is iato. The action of healing has its own word, distinct from the word for the healing people need. The verse moves from being welcomed, to hearing about God’s governance, to receiving this act of healing.
ALSO GROWS
iasis: Healing or cure.
ἴασις
This noun names the healing that the verb describes as taking place.
iatros: Physician or healer.
ἰατρός
This related word names one who attends to healing.
βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ
basileias tou theou
GROWS FROM
βασιλεία (basileia), related to βασιλεύς (basileus)
Reign, sovereignty, or royal authority; here, God’s governance.
“governance of God” in this verse is basileias tou theou. The word translated “kingdom” can name the act and authority of reigning, not only a place. Here God’s governance is spoken of alongside welcome and healing that meet people’s needs.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: King.
βασιλεύς
This related noun names the ruler whose authority is in view.
basileuō: To reign or rule as king.
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the active sense of God’s governance visible.
THE PATTERN
God’s wholeness reaches people by meeting their needs with healing.
Who releases all your crookedness; who heals all your sicknesses.And Jesus went around all the cities and villages, teaching in their gatherings, heralding the good news of the governance, and healing every sickness and every weakness among the people.How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with him.THE THREAD
And it happened on one of those days, as he was teaching, that the separated ones and the teachers of the instruction were sitting by, having come out of every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. And the strength of the Lord was there for him to heal them.The phrase “to heal” uses the same Greek verb ἰάομαι (iaomai) as “healed” in this verse. Luke 5:17 makes the power to heal present; here, that healing meets people who have need of it.
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