What Does Matthew 11:13 Mean?
For all the prophets, and the instruction, prophesied until John.
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
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.THE KEY
By saying the law itself “prophesied,” the verse makes instruction and prophecy one shared witness reaching toward John.
THE MEANING
The verse places the prophets and the law in one stream of witness, both speaking toward a threshold named John. That witness still reaches you: words spoken ahead of time can become recognizable as the present arrives. John marks the hinge where long expectation meets a voice in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that the law only gives rules while the prophets alone speak toward what is coming: here, both are said to prophesy.
THE ROOT
ἐπροφήτευσαν
eprophēteusan
GROWS FROM
φημί
phēmi
To say, speak, or declare.
Matthew’s verb for “prophesied” belongs to a Greek word family built around φημί (phēmi, “to say, speak”). The sentence places the law inside the speaking witness alongside the prophets, showing that its words, too, point toward the threshold named John.
ALSO GROWS
phēmi: To say or speak.
φημί
This basic speech element reveals prophecy as utterance, making the law part of the verse’s speaking witness.
prophētēs: A prophet; one who speaks as a prophetic messenger.
προφήτης
This is the related noun for the prophets named beside the law, linking their identity to the act of prophesying.
prophēteia: Prophecy; prophetic speech or utterance.
προφητεία
This related noun names the speech that the verse attributes to both the prophets and the law.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s witness moves from words spoken beforehand to a present voice announcing what is at hand.
Look, I am sending my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. Look, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, straighten the way of the LORD, as the prophet Isaiah said."In these last days he has spoken to us in a Son, whom he set as heir of all things, through whom he also made the ages.THE THREAD
The instruction and the prophets were until John; from then, the governance of God is carried as good news, and everyone forces their way into it.Matthew’s “prophesied” and Luke’s “prophets” belong to the same Greek word family. Luke makes the hinge explicit: with John named, the kingdom is preached.
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