What Does Matthew 11:4 Mean?
Jesus answered, and said to them, Go, and report back to John what you hear and see.
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
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:THE KEY
The answer travels as testimony: what is heard and seen reaches someone who cannot witness it directly.
THE MEANING
When something is beyond your sight, a report can still bring what is happening near to you. Hearing and seeing ground the message; another person carries that encounter into your present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that only your own direct sight counts as evidence gives way: what is heard and seen can reach you through another person’s report.
THE ROOT
ἀπαγγείλατε
apangeilate
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
message-bearing; announcing or reporting
“report back” in this verse is apangeilate. The verb translated “shew” means to report or announce. Its word family includes messenger and message, so what is heard and seen travels to John as testimony.
ALSO GROWS
ángelos: messenger
ἄγγελος
The messenger carries what others have encountered, as the instruction here carries the report to John.
angelía: message, report
ἀγγελία
The message is the spoken form of what the messengers have heard and seen.
ἀκούετε
akouete
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
to hear or listen
“hear” in this verse is akouete. The Greek family connects hearing with both a report and listening that answers. Here, hearing is part of what becomes testimony: the messengers carry what reaches their ears alongside what they see.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: hearing; report
ἀκοή
Hearing can name both the act of receiving and the report that is passed on.
hypakouō: to listen, obey
ὑπακούω
This related verb shows how hearing can move into response.
THE PATTERN
Restoration becomes testimony through what is heard and seen.
Then the eyes of the blind open, and the ears of the deaf open.The blind look up again, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are roused, and good news is carried to the emptied.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.The word translated “heard” shares the Greek root ἀκου- (akou-, hear or listen) with Matthew’s “hear.” In both verses, what is heard and seen passes into speech, carrying encounter to someone who receives the report.
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