What Does Matthew 13:15 Mean?
For the heart of this people has grown thick, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and they have closed their eyes; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and put it together with their heart, and turn around, and I should heal them.
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
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.THE KEY
The KJV’s “converted” is a turning, and the verse places healing just beyond that turn.
THE MEANING
The heart thickens, the ears hear heavily, and the eyes are shut. Seeing and hearing would gather into understanding, then a turn, and then healing. The verse names a stark resistance: the eyes are closed lest that turn and healing occur.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that numbness is only something that happens to a person: here, eyes are closed to avoid the path that leads to turning and healing.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστρέψωσιν
epistrepsōsin
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
to turn, turn around
“Converted” can sound like adopting a religious category, but this verb describes a turn. The verse places that turning immediately before healing, making the direction of movement part of the healing itself.
ALSO GROWS
epistrophē: turning, return
ἐπιστροφή
This related noun keeps the sense of conversion as a change of direction.
apostrephō: turn away, turn back
ἀποστρέφω
The same turning root can describe a different movement depending on its direction.
ἐπαχύνθη
epachynthē
GROWS FROM
παχύνω
pachynō
to thicken, make thick; figuratively, to make dull
“has grown thick” in this verse is epachynthē. The heart is described as thickened, while hearing is heavy and the eyes are shut. Together, these images present dulled perception as a covering across the faculties, not merely a lack of information.
ALSO GROWS
pachys: thick, dense
παχύς
This related adjective makes the image of a heart grown dense more concrete.
pachos: thickness
πάχος
The noun names the very condition pictured in the heart’s thickening.
συνῶσιν
synōsin
GROWS FROM
συνίημι
syniēmi
to bring together; to understand, comprehend
“put it together with their heart” in this verse is synōsin. The Greek verb carries the sense of bringing things together. Understanding is the point where what the eyes see and the ears hear join in the heart, before the turn and healing that follow.
ALSO GROWS
synesis: understanding, comprehension
σύνεσις
This related noun names the gathered comprehension that the verse says is missing.
synetos: intelligent, discerning
συνετός
This related adjective describes someone able to bring what they perceive into understanding.
THE PATTERN
Sight and hearing do not automatically become understanding; when perception is closed or dulled, the movement toward turning and healing is obstructed.
Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and smear over their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and discern with their heart, and turn back, and be healed.Son of man, you settle in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see and do not see, and ears to hear and do not respond. For they are a rebellious house.Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?THE THREAD
Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and smear over their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and discern with their heart, and turn back, and be healed.Matthew’s wording carries Isaiah’s sequence from the thickened heart and heavy ears to shut eyes, then seeing, hearing, understanding, turning, and healing. The connection makes the closure in Matthew part of a progression whose final movement is healing.
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