What Does Matthew 10:5 Mean?
These twelve Jesus sent out, and commanded them, saying, Do not go into the road of the nations, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans.
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
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:THE KEY
The sending itself includes a boundary: the twelve are forbidden from Gentile roads and Samaritan cities.
THE MEANING
This verse confronts the reader with a commission whose reach is sharply limited: the twelve are sent while Gentile roads and Samaritan cities are barred to them. The boundary belongs to the command itself, and the words leave the exclusion plainly in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that this commission already reaches every people is undone by its own words: Gentile roads and Samaritan cities are expressly excluded.
THE ROOT
ἀπέστειλεν
apésteilen
GROWS FROM
στέλλω
στέλλω (stéllō) means to send or dispatch; in ἀποστέλλω (apostéllō), it forms the verb “send out.”
In this verse, ἀπέστειλεν (apésteilen, sent forth) makes the act of sending the frame for the command. Its word family names the dispatch, the commissioned messenger, and the mission, tying the twelve’s role to the limits of their route.
ALSO GROWS
apostéllō: send out, dispatch
ἀποστέλλω
This compound carries the sending action in the verse and makes dispatch central to the commission.
apóstolos: a person sent; an envoy or messenger
ἀπόστολος
The noun describes a person through the same act: an apostle is one defined by being sent.
apostolḗ: sending, commission, mission
ἀποστολή
This noun names the dispatch itself, linking the act of sending with the work assigned.
ὁδόν
hodón
GROWS FROM
ὁδός
ὁδός (hodós) means road, path, or route; it can also mean a course or way of proceeding.
The phrase names a road associated with the nations, keeping a concrete route in view. The next clause shifts from road to city, so the verse bars both a route and specific destinations.
ALSO GROWS
hodoiporeō: travel or journey by road
ὁδοιπορέω
The compound keeps ὁδός (hodós, road or path) inside the word for traveling, reinforcing the route sense.
hodēgós: guide, one who leads
ὁδηγός
This word combines the way with leading, showing ὁδός (hodós, road or path) as a course someone can guide another along.
ἐθνῶν
ethnōn
GROWS FROM
ἔθνος
ἔθνος (ethnos) means a nation, people, or people-group.
“nations” in this verse is ethnōn. The Greek noun names a people or nation; “Gentiles” is how it functions in this sentence’s contrast. It identifies the road by its people, while the next prohibition names Samaritans separately, two distinct limits.
ALSO GROWS
ethnikós: of the nations; Gentile
ἐθνικός
This adjective carries the same ἐθν- (ethn-, nation or people-group) stem, expressing the people category named by the verse.
ethnárkhēs: ruler of a nation or people
ἐθνάρχης
The compound keeps ἐθν- (ethn-, nation or people) as its first element, showing the same people-group word within a title.
THE PATTERN
A commission takes its scope from the people and places it names, whether the route is narrow or widening.
Rise up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before my face.But he answered and said, I am not sent except to the sheep of the house of Israel that have lost their way.But you will take hold of power when the Set-Apart Breath comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the farthest edge of the ground.THE THREAD
But he answered and said, I am not sent except to the sheep of the house of Israel that have lost their way.Both verses use forms of ἀποστέλλω (apostéllō, send out): Matthew 10:5 says Jesus sends the twelve, while Matthew 15:24 states that Jesus himself is sent to Israel’s lost sheep. The shared root makes the boundary of a sending visible as part of the sending itself.
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