What Does Matthew 23:3 Mean in the King James?
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
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
Truth can remain worth doing even when the person teaching it refuses to do it.
THE MEANING
This verse lets you receive sound instruction without treating the instructor’s conduct as its proof: what is right remains worth practicing, while the example before you can still be false. It exposes the fracture between speech and action as something visible now, not something concealed by authority.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A teacher’s authority makes their conduct a trustworthy pattern.
THE ROOT
ποιεῖτε
poieite
GROWS FROM
ποιέω
poieō
to do, make, bring about
The repeated verb for doing can also mean making: action gives words a concrete form. The teachers’ failure is a practice left unmade, while the command to do makes instruction visible in life.
ALSO GROWS
poiēma: thing made; workmanship
ποίημα
The branch makes the link between doing and what takes shape through it; the verse asks whether instruction takes shape in conduct.
poiētēs: doer; maker
ποιητής
A doer is identified by what is enacted, bringing the verse’s contrast between saying and doing into focus.
τηρεῖτε
tēreite
GROWS FROM
τηρέω
tēreō
to keep watch over, guard, preserve
“observe” in this verse is tēreite. What English can make sound like bare compliance also carries the sense of keeping watch over something entrusted. The instruction is to keep its words in practice; the contrast comes when the teachers’ own lives refuse that keeping.
ALSO GROWS
tērēsis: keeping; observance; custody
τήρησις
This noun makes the protective sense of keeping explicit, deepening observe beyond simply noticing.
diatēreō: preserve carefully; keep
διατηρέω
This compound branch shows keeping as something sustained over time, fitting the verse’s call to retain instruction in practice.
ἔργα
erga
GROWS FROM
ἔργον
ergon
work, deed; something done
The verse names their conduct as deeds that give words a visible shape, then says those deeds do not match their speech. Works are not an abstract reputation here; they are the lived evidence of what a person does.
ALSO GROWS
ergatēs: worker; laborer
ἐργάτης
The worker branch points to a person through the work they do, echoing the verse’s focus on conduct.
energeō: work; be at work; bring about
ἐνεργέω
This branch carries work as active effect, clarifying how actions make a difference beyond spoken claims.
THE PATTERN
Scripture tests words by whether they are enacted, exposing speech that lives apart from its own instruction.
But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.THE THREAD
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:Matthew 7:24 uses the same verb, ποιέω (poieō, to do or make), for putting sayings into practice. Here the teachers’ lives expose a gap between their words and actions; there, hearing joined to doing becomes a foundation.
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