What Does Matthew 10:30 Mean?
But even the hairs of your head are all counted.
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
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.THE KEY
The verse makes being known concrete: even the smallest details of you are held in a complete count.
THE MEANING
You are known down to details so small they may escape your notice. “All numbered” makes that knowing concrete and sustained; you are not seen only as an indistinct whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The thought “I am too small to be noticed” meets its reversal here: even what seems negligible is included in complete attention.
THE ROOT
ἠριθμημέναι
ērithmēmenai
GROWS FROM
ἀριθμέω
arithmeō
to count, number
“counted” in this verse is ērithmēmenai. The Greek form presents the hairs as already numbered, with that count still standing. The verb makes knowing concrete: you are seen down to countable particulars, not held only as a vague whole.
ALSO GROWS
arithmos: number, count
ἀριθμός
This noun shows the count itself inside “numbered”: the image rests on particulars being included in a count.
arithmētos: countable, enumerable
ἀριθμητός
This related word names what can be counted, echoing the verse’s image of even the smallest particulars being included.
THE PATTERN
Being known reaches into the particular details that might otherwise seem too small to matter.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, you probe me, and you perceive me.And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not shrink, for you surpass many sparrows.THE THREAD
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not shrink, for you surpass many sparrows.Luke uses the same Greek verb, ἀριθμέω (arithmeō), meaning “to count, number,” for “numbered.” Its next words connect that complete count with reassurance: no detail of you is lost in the crowd.
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