What Does Luke 9:20 Mean?
He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Peter answered and said, The Anointed One of God.
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
He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.THE KEY
“Christ” is not Jesus’ surname but Peter’s answer in a title: God’s Anointed One.
THE MEANING
Jesus’ question still asks who he is in the reader’s sight. Peter answers with a title that joins Jesus’ identity to God’s anointing. The name carries both its source and its commission.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that “Christ” is simply a second name attached to Jesus; Peter uses it as a title naming him as God’s Anointed One.
THE ROOT
Χριστός
Christos
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
To anoint, to apply oil.
“the Anointed One” in this verse is Christos. Χριστός grows from χρίω, “to anoint,” so Peter names Jesus by the act that marks him as God’s Anointed One. The title keeps its connection to anointing visible: it carries a commission, not just a name.
ALSO GROWS
Christos: Anointed One
Χριστός
This is the title Peter gives Jesus, joined to the action of anointing.
chrisma: Anointing
χρῖσμα
This noun from the same word family keeps the title connected to the act itself.
echrisen: He anointed
ἔχρισεν
This verb form appears in Luke 4:18, where Jesus speaks of being anointed for the work that follows.
THE PATTERN
God’s anointing marks a person for a work that becomes visible in the world.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the breath of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.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
The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.The same Greek word family behind Χριστός appears in “hath anointed me.” Peter’s answer names Jesus as the Anointed One; this verse shows the work carried in that title, good news, deliverance, restored sight, and liberty.
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