What Does Matthew 1:24 Mean?
And Joseph, raised from sleep, did as the messenger of the LORD had set before him, and took his wife to his side.
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 Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:THE KEY
Joseph’s “awakening” uses the Greek verb that also means “raise,” and its larger reach comes into view as he rises into an act of receiving.
THE MEANING
A word can meet you as you are waking and become visible in what you receive. Rising, responding, and making room belong to one movement here: Joseph wakes and takes his wife to himself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a message can be received while leaving the life it touches unchanged is undone: Joseph’s response changes how he receives his wife.
THE ROOT
ἐγερθείς
egeirtheis
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
to wake, rouse, or raise up
“raised from sleep” in this verse is egeirtheis. The same Greek verb describes waking from sleep and raising the dead; one word holds both scales of being roused. Joseph’s awakening becomes an immediate act of receiving.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: awaken or rouse
ἐγείρω
This is the sense in Matthew 1:24, where Joseph is roused from sleep.
egeirō: raise up from death
ἐγείρω
The same verb is used when Jesus says the girl is not dead but sleeps, then raises her (Matthew 9:24–25), giving “raised from sleep” a wider resonance.
παρέλαβεν
parelaben
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
to take or receive; παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō) compounds it with παρά (para), “beside”
“took his wife to his side” in this verse is parelaben. The verb carries the sense of receiving someone to oneself. The phrase presents Joseph’s act as welcoming his wife into his life, not merely moving her from one place to another.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: take, receive
λαμβάνω
The base verb makes the act of taking inseparable from receiving.
paralambanō: take along, receive to oneself
παραλαμβάνω
This is the verb used here; it frames Joseph’s action as receiving his wife into his own life.
ἄγγελος
angelos
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
messenger; the word family also carries the sense of announcing or reporting
The Greek word names a messenger by function: bearing a message. Here that message is immediately embodied in Joseph’s rising and receiving.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: messenger
ἄγγελος
This is the word translated “angel,” keeping the focus on the one who brings the message.
angellō: announce, report
ἀγγέλλω
This related verb makes the messenger’s role audible in the word family: a message is announced, then Joseph responds.
THE PATTERN
A word received becomes visible when rising takes the form of concrete action.
And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the rising offering, and rose, and went to the place of which God had said to him.And he left everything behind, rose up, and followed him.When he rose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and withdrew into Egypt.THE THREAD
When he rose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and withdrew into Egypt.The same Greek verbs for “raised” (ἐγείρω, egeirō) and “took” (παραλαμβάνω, paralambanō) appear together again. The repeated pair links awakening with receiving, and the second scene extends that movement to the child and his mother.
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