What Does Matthew 15:18 Mean in the King James?
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The mouth is the exit, but the heart is the source, and what it sends out makes the person’s inner condition visible.
THE MEANING
What leaves your mouth comes from your heart and bears on your whole person. The mouth gives outward form to what is within; this verse locates defilement in what emerges from that inner source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a person is made unclean only by what comes from outside: here, what comes out of the heart also matters.
THE ROOT
κοινοῖ
koinoi
GROWS FROM
κοιν
koin-
Common or shared; the verb means to make common, and in purity language, to render profane or defiled.
The word translated “defile” belongs to the same word family as “common” and “sharing in common.” The verse describes what comes from the heart as changing the person’s condition, making the inner source visible in the person’s outward life.
ALSO GROWS
koinos: common, shared
κοινός
This is the root family’s basic sense, beneath the verse’s use of the verb for making someone defiled.
koinōnia: sharing in common, participation
κοινωνία
It shows the family’s wider movement from what is shared to what is made common.
ἐκπορευόμενα
ekporeuomena
GROWS FROM
πορευ
poreu-
To go or travel; with ἐκ (ek), “out,” the word means to go out or emerge.
The words are pictured as things going out from the heart, with the mouth as their point of emergence. English “proceed” can sound abstract; the Greek gives the verse a movement from an inner source into outward expression.
ALSO GROWS
poreuomai: go, travel
πορεύομαι
It supplies the sense of movement carried by the word for what proceeds from the heart.
poreia: journey, travel
πορεία
This related noun keeps the family’s sense of movement and passage in view.
THE PATTERN
What is held within a person flows outward through speech and reveals the inner source.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.THE THREAD
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.Luke uses the same Greek words for “heart” (καρδία, kardia) and “mouth” (στόμα, stoma), and makes their connection explicit: the mouth speaks from the heart’s abundance. Matthew names what that flow can do to the person; Luke shows the inner store from which it comes.
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