What Does Matthew 11:27 Mean?
All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son chooses to uncover him.
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
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.THE KEY
All things are handed to the Son, and the deepest disclosure is the Father himself, uncovered through their mutual knowing.
THE MEANING
Everything is entrusted to the Son by the Father. The Father and Son know one another in a mutual knowing that no outsider creates for themselves. The Son uncovers the Father for whomever he wills.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the Father can be possessed through unaided knowledge: here, the Father is made known through the Son’s disclosure.
THE ROOT
ἀποκαλύψῃ
apokalypsē
GROWS FROM
καλύπτω
kalyptō
To cover or conceal.
“reveal” in this verse is apokalypsē. The word pictures a covering being taken away, exposing what is already there. The Son’s disclosure uncovers the Father; it does not manufacture something new about him.
ALSO GROWS
epikalýptō: To cover over or conceal.
ἐπικαλύπτω
This related verb shows the covering that the verse’s act of revealing removes.
apokálypsis: Unveiling or revelation.
ἀποκάλυψις
The noun names the disclosure itself: the Father becomes known as the Son lifts the cover.
παρεδόθη
paredóthē
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give.
“handed over to me” in this verse is paredóthē. Here the verb carries the image of handing over: everything is placed into the Son’s keeping. Beside the mutual knowing that follows, this handover joins authority with relationship.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give.
δίδωμι
The base verb shows the act of giving held within the verse’s language of entrusting.
paradídōmi: To hand over or entrust.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used here, making the Father’s giving a handover of all things to the Son.
apodídōmi: To give back or render.
ἀποδίδωμι
This related form shows how the same giving root can also describe what is returned or rendered.
ἐπιγινώσκει
epiginōskei
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
To come to know or recognize.
“knows” in this verse is epiginōskei. The same verb describes the Father’s knowing of the Son and the Son’s knowing of the Father. In this passage, knowing is mutual recognition within relationship, not merely possession of facts.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: To know or recognize.
γινώσκω
This is the verb at the heart of the repeated knowing between Father and Son.
epígnōsis: Recognition or knowledge.
ἐπίγνωσις
This related noun carries the same knowing root, echoing the passage’s focus on recognition.
gnōstós: Known or familiar.
γνωστός
This related word points to what is brought within the reach of knowing.
THE PATTERN
What is unseen becomes known as its ways and nature are disclosed through one who makes them visible.
He makes his ways known to Moses, and his deeds to the children of Israel.No one has ever seen God. The only-born God, who is at the breast of the Father, has led him out.Who, being the radiance of his weight and the exact stamp of his foundation, carrying all things by the word of his power, when he had made the cleansing of shortcomings, sat down at the right hand of the Greatness on high.THE THREAD
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you know him, and you have perceived him.John uses the same Greek knowing family, γινώσκω (ginōskō), that appears in Matthew’s ἐπιγινώσκω (epiginōskō). It makes the connection plain: knowing the Son opens into knowing the Father, just as Matthew says the Son uncovers him.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us