What Does Luke 9:42 Mean?
And while he was still coming, the demon broke him and tore him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean breath, and healed the child, and gave him back to his father.
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 as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.THE KEY
Jesus’ healing reaches its full shape when the child is given back to his father.
THE MEANING
The child is thrown down and torn, and Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit, heals him, and returns him to his father. Restoration reaches both the child’s body and his relationship with his father.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The moment of being thrown down is the whole story. The verse carries the child through healing and back to his father.
THE ROOT
ἀποδίδωμι
apodidōmi
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι (didōmi, give) with ἀπό (apo, away or back)
Give; in this compound, give back, return, or render.
“gave back” in this verse is apodidōmi. The Greek verb in this phrase is ἀπέδωκεν (apedōken), from ἀποδίδωμι (apodidōmi, give back or return). That shade lets the sentence end in relationship: after the harm, Jesus returns the child to his father.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: Give, grant
δίδωμι
The simpler verb keeps the return anchored in an act of giving.
apodosis: Repayment, rendering, a giving back
ἀπόδοσις
This related word carries the same return or rendering sense found in the child’s return to his father.
ἰάομαι
iaomai
GROWS FROM
ἰα-
ia-
Heal or cure.
“healed” in this verse is iaomai. The verb names healing as a concrete act in the same sentence that names the child’s violent convulsion. The verse holds his bodily suffering and his bodily restoration together.
ALSO GROWS
iasis: Healing, cure
ἴασις
The noun form makes the healing in this verse a recognizable act of restoration.
iatros: Physician, healer
ἰατρός
This related word names one who heals, bringing out the restorative work expressed by the verb.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
Breathe or blow; the related noun can mean breath, wind, or spirit.
“unclean breath” in this verse is pneuma. The one noun πνεῦμα (pneuma, breath, wind, or spirit) holds these meanings together. Here it names the unclean presence Jesus rebukes, while the child’s bodily torment stays fully in view.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: Breathe, blow
πνέω
The verb reveals the breath and wind at the heart of this word family.
pnoē: Breath, blowing
πνοή
This related noun makes explicit the breath sense carried by pneuma.
THE PATTERN
Restoration becomes visible as life is returned to its relationships.
And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, your son lives.And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him to his mother.And he gave her his hand and stood her up, and calling the set-apart ones and the widows, he stood her beside them, alive.THE THREAD
They said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give back therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.The Greek verb rendered “Render” belongs to the same verb family as “delivered him again” in Luke. That shared sense of giving back opens the final action as a return: the child is placed back with his father.
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