What Does Matthew 10:14 Mean?
Whoever will not take you in, nor hear and respond to your words, as you go out from that house or city, shake the dust out from your feet.
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 whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.THE KEY
To refuse the messenger is to refuse the sender; the shaken dust makes that refusal visible.
THE MEANING
When you refuse both the messenger and the message, the refusal reaches the one who sent them. The dust shaken from the feet marks that refusal as a sign against the house or city, and the messengers depart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that rejecting a messenger leaves the sender untouched: the passage treats refusal as a response to the one who sent them.
THE ROOT
δέξηται
dexētai
GROWS FROM
δεχ-
to receive, take in, or welcome
“take in” in this verse is dexētai. The same δεχ- stem appears in Greek words for receiving or welcoming. Here, receiving the messengers and hearing their words are paired responses: the welcome extends to both the people sent and the message they carry.
ALSO GROWS
apodechomai: receive or accept
ἀποδέχομαι
This compound keeps the same receiving stem, showing that the response to a messenger can be acceptance, not mere exposure to their presence.
prosdechomai: welcome or receive
προσδέχομαι
This branch makes the welcome explicit, illuminating how refusing to receive the messengers closes a relational door.
ἀκούσῃ
akousē
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
to hear or listen
“hear and respond” in this verse is akousē. English can make hearing sound like sound merely reaching the ear, but this Greek word family also includes responsive listening. The verse pairs refusal to receive the messengers with refusal to hear their words, closing both welcome and listening.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: hearing or a report
ἀκοή
This noun keeps the shared hearing stem and shows how what is heard can also be the message being carried.
hypakouō: listen and respond; obey
ὑπακούω
This compound shows that the Greek family can carry hearing into response, deepening the contrast between hearing a message and refusing it.
THE PATTERN
The response to a sent messenger reaches the sender: receiving, hearing, or refusing the message carries relational consequence.
And it shall be that whoever does not hear and respond to my words, which he speaks in my nature, I myself seek it from him.Whoever takes you in takes me in, and whoever takes me in takes in the one who sent me.The one who hears you hears me, and the one who sets you aside sets me aside, and the one who sets me aside sets aside the one who sent me.THE THREAD
Whoever takes you in takes me in, and whoever takes me in takes in the one who sent me.Matthew 10:40 repeats the same Greek receiving stem, δέχομαι (dechomai), and makes the chain explicit: receiving the messengers reaches Jesus, and receiving Jesus reaches the sender. That connection opens the refusal in this verse as a response that reaches beyond the house or city itself.
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