What Does Matthew 12:35 Mean?
A good human casts forth good things out of the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human casts forth evil things out of the evil treasure.
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
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.THE KEY
What the heart stores is what it casts into the open.
THE MEANING
The heart is a store whose contents take outward form: what it holds as good comes out as good, and what it holds as harmful comes out as harm. Your words and actions reveal the quality of what your inner life is storing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that words simply spill out without revealing anything about the heart that holds them.
THE ROOT
ἐκβάλλει
ekbállei
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
to throw, cast
“casts forth” in this verse is ekbállei. The Greek verb ἐκβάλλει (ekbállei, “casts out”) gives the phrase the force of throwing something outward. Good and harmful things are not described as appearing from nowhere; they are what the heart’s treasury sends into view.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: throw, cast
βάλλω
The basic verb carries the concrete force behind the heart’s outward expression.
katabállō: cast down, lay down
καταβάλλω
This compound keeps the same throwing force, showing that the root describes a directed movement outward or downward.
θησαυρός
thēsaurós
GROWS FROM
θησαυρ-
thēsaur-
a store, treasury; a place where valuables are kept
Here treasure is not only the prized item but also the store that holds it. What the heart keeps in reserve becomes the material it sends outward.
ALSO GROWS
thēsaurízō: store up, lay up treasure
θησαυρίζω
The related verb makes explicit that treasure can be something accumulated and kept within.
thēsauro-phylákion: treasury, treasury chamber
θησαυροφυλάκιον
This related word names the place where a community’s valuables are stored, echoing the heart as an inner repository.
THE PATTERN
A source’s inner contents take the character of what flows out from it.
Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.Does the same spring gush from the same opening, the sweet and the bitter?A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.THE THREAD
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.Matthew 6:21 uses the same Greek word, θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “treasure”): where treasure is placed, the heart follows; here, what the heart stores is cast outward. Together, the verses show the inner store shaping both the heart’s direction and its visible expression.
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