What Does Mark 16:15 Mean?
And he said to them, Go into all the world and herald the good news to all creation.
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 he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.THE KEY
The Greek phrase reaches into all creation, so “every creature” opens the announcement’s horizon beyond human borders.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as one through whom the good news moves outward into the whole created world. Its reach is not confined to one people or place; every created thing lies within its horizon. The verse meets you now with a widening sense of who and what can be included.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that the good news belongs only to a bounded people or place.
THE ROOT
κτίσει
ktisei
GROWS FROM
κτίζω
ktizō
To create or bring into being; the word-family can name creation as a whole or a created thing.
The Greek term can mean “creation” as well as “creature,” so the phrase reaches across the created order, not only a category of living beings. The English wording lets you hear each creature; the root also opens the whole creation as the field of the announcement.
ALSO GROWS
ktisis: creation; a created order or thing
κτίσις
This closely related noun is used for “creature” in Romans 8:19, linking the verse’s wide horizon to creation itself.
ktisma: a created thing
κτίσμα
This branch makes explicit the breadth of what has been brought into being.
κηρύξατε
kēryxate
GROWS FROM
κηρύσσω
kēryssō
To proclaim as a herald; to announce openly.
“herald” in this verse is kēryxate. “Preach” carries the image of an announcement sent out for others to hear, rather than a message kept as private knowledge. Beside “good news,” the heralding word makes the verse a movement of announcement into the world.
ALSO GROWS
kēryx: herald
κῆρυξ
The herald is the one who carries an announcement beyond its source.
kērygma: proclamation; the announced message
κήρυγμα
This noun names the proclamation itself, joining the act of speaking to the message being carried.
εὐαγγέλιον
euangelion
GROWS FROM
εὖ + ἀγγελία (eu + angelia)
Good announcement or good news.
The word holds together goodness and announcement: the message is good news because it is proclaimed as news. Its family also connects the announcement with a messenger, matching the verse’s outward motion.
ALSO GROWS
euangelizomai: to announce good news
εὐαγγελίζομαι
This verb names the act of carrying the gospel as a spoken announcement.
angelos: messenger
ἄγγελος
This related word keeps the messenger inside the word-family of the announcement.
THE PATTERN
The announcement moves outward across boundaries until its reach includes all peoples and the created world.
Recount his weight among the nations; his wonders among all peoples.But you will take hold of power when the Set-Apart Breath comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the farthest edge of the ground.And I perceive another messenger flying in the midst of heaven, holding the good news of the ages to bring it to those who sit upon the earth, and to every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people.THE THREAD
For the creation waits with its head stretched forward, watching for the unveiling of the sons of God.“Creature” in Mark and “creature” in Romans translate the same Greek word-family, κτίσις (ktisis), meaning creation or a created thing. Romans opens the horizon further: the creation named in Mark is also pictured as waiting for its unveiling.
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