What Does Mark 13:23 Mean?
But watch. Look, I have told you all things beforehand.
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
But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.THE KEY
“Take heed” is a call to keep seeing, because the warning has already been spoken.
THE MEANING
You are not left to face deception without warning: what might confuse you has already been spoken, and your attention is called to it. Seeing clearly means holding what you have heard in view as events unfold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that deception arrives with no warning dissolves here: the warning is already given.
THE ROOT
βλέπετε
blépete
GROWS FROM
βλέπ-
blép-
to see, look at, keep in view
“watch” in this verse is blépete. The command translated “take heed” is built on the verb for seeing. Attention here means keeping sight of what has been revealed, not merely feeling cautious.
ALSO GROWS
blépō: to see, look
βλέπω
This is the base verb beneath the command; the verse calls attention an act of seeing.
anablépō: to look up; to regain sight
ἀναβλέπω
This related form makes the root’s connection to clear sight concrete: watchfulness keeps what is seen in view.
ἰδού
idoú
GROWS FROM
εἶδ-
eîd-
to see, perceive
“Look” in this verse is idoú. “Behold” carries another seeing word, following the command to pay attention. The verse turns the reader toward what is already in view: the warning has been spoken beforehand.
ALSO GROWS
eîdon: I saw; I perceived
εἶδον
This form belongs to the verb family behind the imperative “behold,” joining the command to direct perception.
horáō: to see, perceive
ὁράω
This is the verb’s present form; the differing forms preserve the same movement of sight and perception.
THE PATTERN
What is spoken beforehand gives present sight for recognizing what unfolds.
From the beginning I have declared it to you, and before it came I made you hear it, lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my carved image and my poured image has commanded them.And now I have said it to you before it comes to be, so that when it comes to be you may lean your full weight on it.You therefore, beloved, since you know these things beforehand, guard yourselves, lest you also, carried off by the wandering of the lawless, fall from your own steadiness.THE THREAD
And Jesus answered them and began to say, Watch, lest anyone lead you off the path.“Take heed” in both verses is βλέπετε (blépete, “keep seeing; pay attention”). The opening warns that deception is possible; this verse shows why attention has a ground: the warning is already in view.
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