What Does Matthew 10:11 Mean?
Into whatever city or village you enter, search out who in it carries weight, and stay there until you go out from it.
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 into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.THE KEY
The verse makes remaining the hidden half of arrival: a welcome becomes a dwelling when presence stays.
THE MEANING
Your arrival carries discernment: you ask who is worthy in the place, then remain with that person until it is time to leave. Presence takes shape through dwelling long enough for welcome to become relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that a better welcome must always be sought: the verse treats staying with a worthy household as the completion of arrival.
THE ROOT
μείνατε
meínate
GROWS FROM
μένω
menō
remain, stay, continue
The verb translated “abide” is μείνατε (meínate), from μένω (menō), meaning “remain” or “stay.” The same word family gives μονή (monē), meaning “dwelling” or “abode”: remaining and the place made by remaining belong together.
ALSO GROWS
monē: dwelling, abode
μονή
This noun shows how remaining takes shape as a place to dwell.
diamenō: continue, remain
διαμένω
This compound carries the root’s sense of staying through time, echoing “till ye go thence.”
THE PATTERN
Presence makes a place into a dwelling by remaining there.
Let a little water be taken, please, and wash your feet, and lean yourselves under the tree.Surely goodness and faithful love pursue me all the days of my life, and I settle in the house of the LORD for the length of days.Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it stays in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, that one will guard my word, and my Father will love that one, and we will come to him and make a place to remain with him.Matthew’s “abide” is μείνατε (meínate, remain), from μένω (menō, remain); John’s “abode” is μονή (monē, dwelling), from the same word family. The shared root lets Matthew’s hospitality in a household open into the image of a dwelling made with the person.
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