What Does Matthew 13:51 Mean?
Jesus says to them, Have you put all these things together? They say to him, Yes, Lord.
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 saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.THE KEY
In Greek, to understand is to bring things together, so Jesus asks whether the separate parables now form one whole.
THE MEANING
The question reaches you now: do the separate images fit together into a whole? “Yea, Lord” names the moment when what you have heard becomes something you can grasp together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that hearing each saying separately is already understanding; the Greek verb pictures grasping them together.
THE ROOT
συνήκατε
synēkate
GROWS FROM
συνίημι
syniēmi
To bring together; hence, to comprehend.
“put together” in this verse is synēkate. The verb here is συνήκατε, from συνίημι: understanding as bringing things together. The answer “Yea” affirms that the separate sayings have become graspable as a whole.
ALSO GROWS
synesis: understanding, comprehension
σύνεσις
This noun names the joined comprehension the question asks about.
synetos: intelligent, discerning
συνετός
This related word describes the discernment that can gather what is said into a coherent whole.
THE PATTERN
Understanding joins what is heard with the whole it belongs to.
But the one sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and puts it together, who also bears fruit and brings forth, one a hundredfold, another sixty, another thirty.Grasp what I say, and the Lord will give you a joining together in all things.THE THREAD
Then he threw open their minds, so that they might put the writings together.The same verb for “understand” appears here. It links the parables becoming a whole with the scriptures becoming intelligible.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us