What Does Matthew 11:5 Mean?
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.
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
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.THE KEY
The last sign is good news reaching the poor: restoration includes who gets to hear.
THE MEANING
The verse holds open a present reality in which what is blocked can open: eyes see, legs move, skin clears, ears hear, and life rises. Its final sign is that good news reaches people who have little.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The poor are not outside the reach of good news, and bodily limitation does not mark someone as forgotten.
THE ROOT
ἐγείρονται
egeirontai
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
To wake, rouse, or raise.
“dead are roused” in this verse is egeirontai. The verb can describe waking as well as raising someone up. The dead are named with the language of awakening, so death itself appears as a condition from which one can be roused.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: To wake from sleep, rouse, or raise.
ἐγείρω
This is the verb in the verse; its waking sense makes the raising of the dead vivid.
egersis: A rising or resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This related noun carries the same root into the language of rising from death.
ἀναβλέπουσιν
anablepousin
GROWS FROM
βλέπω
blepō
To see or look.
“look up again” in this verse is anablepousin. The verb joins ana, meaning up or again, to blepō, to see. Sight returning is expressed as seeing again or looking up, a recovery of perception rather than an abstract change.
ALSO GROWS
anablepō: To look up or regain sight.
ἀναβλέπω
This is the word used for the blind in the verse: seeing returns.
emblepō: To look at or gaze upon.
ἐμβλέπω
This related form shows the same seeing-root directed toward what is before the eyes.
εὐαγγελίζονται
euangelizontai
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
To announce or carry a message.
“good news is carried to” in this verse is euangelizontai. The word-family joins the messenger, the message, and the act of announcing it. The verse ends with good news being announced to the poor, so its final sign is a message that reaches them.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: Messenger.
ἄγγελος
This branch names the one who carries an announcement.
euangelion: Good news or gospel.
εὐαγγέλιον
This branch names the message announced to the poor in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Restoration appears as blocked capacities opening and good news reaching people with little.
Then the eyes of the blind open, and the ears of the deaf open.The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
Then the eyes of the blind open, and the ears of the deaf open.Isaiah pairs opened eyes with unstopped ears, the first two movements in Matthew’s longer sequence. The list then opens into movement, cleansing, rising, and good news reaching the poor.
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