What Does Mark 13:16 Mean?
And let the one in the field not turn back to lift his cloak.
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 let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.THE KEY
The danger is not the garment left in the field but the backward turn required to reclaim it.
THE MEANING
When the moment to flee arrives, you face a choice between continuing toward safety and turning back for what is left behind. Even a garment is expendable when retrieving it risks the escape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that you must recover your possessions before you can move to safety.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστρέφω
epistrephō
GROWS FROM
στρεφ-
streph-
Turn, twist, change direction.
The Greek verb ἐπιστρέφω (epistrephō, turn back or return) is followed by ὀπίσω (opisō, behind), making the backward direction explicit. The verse exposes the turn itself as the danger: retrieving the garment means reversing the movement toward escape.
ALSO GROWS
strephō: Turn or twist.
στρέφω
The base verb names the change of direction that the verse forbids.
apostrephō: Turn away.
ἀποστρέφω
This related form keeps the same turning movement in view, showing how the shared stem carries direction.
THE PATTERN
At the point of flight, turning back to retrieve possessions can endanger the escape itself.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for your living soul. Do not look behind you, and do not stand still anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest you be swept away.On that day, whoever is upon the roof, with his vessels in the house, let him not come down to lift them; and the one in the field, likewise, let him not turn back.THE THREAD
And the one in the field, let him not turn back to lift his cloak.Matthew repeats the Greek wording ἐπιστρέφω ὀπίσω (epistrephō opisō, turn back behind) for returning to retrieve clothing. The shared phrase reveals the same urgent choice: keep moving toward escape, even when what remains behind is basic clothing.
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