What Does Matthew 13:14 Mean?
And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is filled up, which says, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not put it together; and by seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive.
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
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:THE KEY
The eyes and ears work, yet what they receive is never gathered into recognition.
THE MEANING
You can hear the words and see what is happening while still failing to put them together. The verse names a gap between exposure and understanding: your senses receive, but their meaning does not become clear. It speaks now whenever familiar truth passes through without becoming recognition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing truth or seeing evidence automatically means you have understood it.
THE ROOT
συνίημι
syniēmi
GROWS FROM
σύν + ἵημι (syn + hiēmi)
To bring or put together; by extension, to comprehend.
“understand” in this verse is syniēmi. The word points to understanding as gathering what is heard into a whole. Hearing can happen without that gathering, leaving the words present but their meaning unassembled.
ALSO GROWS
synesis: Understanding or comprehension.
σύνεσις
This related noun names the gathered comprehension that the verse says is missing.
synetos: Discerning or intelligent.
συνετός
This related adjective describes the capacity to bring what is received together into understanding.
εἴδω
eidō
GROWS FROM
ἰδ-/οἰδ- (id-/oid-)
To see, perceive, or know.
The word translated “perceive” carries a movement from seeing toward knowing. The verse distinguishes looking at something from recognizing what is before you.
ALSO GROWS
oida: Know; a form historically connected with seeing.
οἶδα
It makes explicit the seeing-to-knowing link within the word used for perception.
eidos: Form or appearance.
εἶδος
This related word names what is seen, underscoring that sight of an appearance does not itself guarantee recognition.
THE PATTERN
Receiving words and signs does not guarantee that their meaning becomes understanding.
And he said, Go, and say to this people, Hear and hear again, but do not discern; see and see again, but do not perceive.Hear and respond to this now, O foolish people, with no heart. You who have eyes and do not see, who have ears and do not hear.Saying, "Go to this people and say, By hearing you will hear, and not gather it together; and by seeing you will see, and not see."THE THREAD
And he said, Go, and say to this people, Hear and hear again, but do not discern; see and see again, but do not perceive.Isaiah’s line has the same sequence Matthew echoes: hearing and seeing, followed by failed understanding and perception. It opens Matthew’s words as a pattern in which revelation reaches the senses without becoming recognition.
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