What Does Mark 10:28 Mean?
Peter began to say to him, Look, we have let go of everything and followed you.
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
Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.THE KEY
The word rendered “left” also means “release,” so Peter describes a grip opening as he follows.
THE MEANING
Here, releasing everything and following Jesus belong to one movement: what is let go gives way to a living direction. The Greek verb behind “left” also names the release of debts. The verse describes a life by what it follows, as well as by what it releases.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Releasing everything can only leave a life empty.
THE ROOT
ἀφήκαμεν
aphēkamen
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
Send away; let go, leave, release.
“let go of” in this verse is aphēkamen. The verb rendered “left” belongs to a word family that also names release and forgiveness. English separates leaving something behind from releasing a debt, while this Greek root holds both within the sense of letting go.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission, forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This noun shows the same letting go applied to a debt or charge.
apheinai: To leave, release, or send away.
ἀφεῖναι
This infinitive form makes explicit the action carried by “left”: something is let go.
THE PATTERN
In scripture, leaving becomes a forward movement when it is joined to following.
And he turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them, and boiled their flesh with the tools of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he rose, and walked after Elijah, and attended him.And straightway they let go of their nets, and followed him.And when they had drawn the boats down to the land, they let go of everything and followed him.THE THREAD
And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.The verb translated “left” here and “forgive” in Matthew 6:12 comes from the same Greek root, ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), meaning to release or let go. The connection reveals the shared motion beneath two English ideas: releasing what is held, whether possessions or a debt.
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