What Does Mark 7:6 Mean?
And he answered and said to them, Finely Isaiah prophesied about you, hypocrites, as it is written, This people gives me weight with their lips, but their heart holds itself far from me.
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
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.THE KEY
The lips can call God worthy while the heart remains at a distance.
THE MEANING
Words can voice honor while the heart stays far from God; the verse holds both realities together without mistaking speech for nearness. The gap between what the mouth declares and where the inner life is oriented is visible now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that saying reverent words proves the heart is near to God.
THE ROOT
τιμάω
timaō
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
tim-
Value, worth, esteem.
“gives me weight” in this verse is timaō. The Greek word for honor belongs to a word family about value and worth. The lips are assigning God worth, while the rest of the sentence reveals that spoken valuation and the heart’s nearness can diverge.
ALSO GROWS
timē: Value, price, honor.
τιμή
The shared root shows that honor is an expression of the value someone is given.
timios: Precious, valued, honored.
τίμιος
This branch describes what is held as precious, echoing the worth the lips declare.
καρδία
kardia
GROWS FROM
καρδ-
kard-
Heart, the inner center of a person.
Here the heart is the inward center set against the lips’ outward words. Greek compounds keep that inward sense visible: the heart can be hard, or it can be known.
ALSO GROWS
sklērokardia: Hardness of heart.
σκληροκαρδία
It shows the heart as an inner condition that can differ from what a person says.
kardiognōstēs: One who knows hearts.
καρδιογνώστης
The compound treats the heart as an inward reality that can be known beyond outward speech.
ἀπέχει
apechei
GROWS FROM
ἀπέχω (apechō), from ἀπό (apo, away) + ἔχω (echō, have or hold)
Be distant or hold away.
“holds itself far from” in this verse is apechei. The Greek verb says the heart is distant from God. Its word family also describes abstaining or holding back, adding the shade of separation without specifying whether the heart’s distance is deliberate.
ALSO GROWS
apechō: Be far from, be distant; hold away.
ἀπέχω
This is the verb behind the verse’s statement that the heart is far from God.
apochē: Abstinence, holding back.
ἀποχή
The related noun carries the sense of keeping apart, giving the verse’s distance language another layer.
THE PATTERN
Outward signs of reverence can coexist with an inward life oriented elsewhere.
And the Lord says, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips give me weight, but their heart has gone far from me, and their awe of me is a command of men, trained.They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear and respond to your words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart walks after their cut-off gain.If anyone among you seems to be devout, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this one's service is empty.THE THREAD
And the Lord says, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips give me weight, but their heart has gone far from me, and their awe of me is a command of men, trained.Mark’s sentence echoes Isaiah’s fuller image of mouths drawing near while hearts move away. Isaiah adds that even fear toward God can be learned from human precepts, sharpening the difference between outward reverence and inward nearness.
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