What Does Matthew 1:21 Mean?
And she will bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus, the LORD's deliverance, for he will deliver his people from their missing.
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 she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.THE KEY
The name Jesus carries the nature of the rescue: you are brought out from what has narrowed your life.
THE MEANING
Deliverance reaches the places where you miss the mark and brings you out from their hold. The name Jesus speaks of this rescue as his nature, not merely as a label. What you are delivered from does not have to define who you are.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that your failures are your name is undone: they are what he comes to deliver you from.
THE ROOT
σώσει
sōsei
GROWS FROM
σωζ-
σωζ- (sōz-, the Greek verbal stem): rescue, preserve, or bring safely through; in other uses, make well.
“deliver” in this verse is sōsei. The verse’s “save” belongs to a word family of rescue and preservation: deliverance brings someone safely through what holds them. The Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”) carries the Hebrew name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ, “deliverance”), so the name itself speaks the nature of the rescue.
ALSO GROWS
diasōzō: Bring safely through; preserve.
διασῴζω
This compound keeps the σωζ- (sōz-) stem and makes the movement through danger visible.
aposōzō: Rescue; preserve from danger.
ἀποσῴζω
This compound also carries the σωζ- (sōz-) stem, showing deliverance as being brought out from peril.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēšūaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
ישע (y-sh-ʿ, yashaʿ): deliver, open into spaciousness.
“Jesus, the LORD's deliverance” in this verse is Yēšūaʿ. The Hebrew name behind Jesus grows from the root of deliverance. A name speaks nature here: the one named embodies movement out of constriction and into spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
yāshaʿ: Deliver; rescue.
יָשַׁע
This verb makes the name’s deliverance an action: bringing someone out.
yeshuʿah: Deliverance; rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the release carried in the name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ).
mōshiaʿ: Deliverer; rescuer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This agent noun shows the root as the nature of the one who brings people out.
ἁμαρτιῶν
hamartiōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
ἁμαρτ- (hamart-, the Greek stem): missing, erring, or going astray.
“missing” in this verse is hamartiōn. The Greek word here names the misses and errors from which the people are delivered. It does not name their nature; the verse places those misses on the side of what rescue brings them out from.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: Miss; err; do wrong.
ἁμαρτάνω
This verb shows the root as the act of missing or going astray.
hamartēma: A mistake; an error or wrong.
ἁμάρτημα
This noun names a particular miss, the kind of thing the verse says deliverance reaches.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance brings people out of confinement and into freedom.
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.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.So if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.THE THREAD
Yet he delivered them for the sake of his nature, to make his strength known.The Hebrew verb translated “saved” comes from ישע (yashaʿ, “deliver”), the root carried in the name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēšūaʿ, “deliverance”). The name’s nature is enacted as release: the people are brought out, and the deliverer is known through that act.
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