What Does Matthew 13:56 Mean?
And his sisters, are they not all with us? From where then has this man all these things?
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 his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?THE KEY
The question recognizes what is present and searches for its source: knowing someone’s place among you does not explain all that comes through them.
THE MEANING
You can know a person’s household and still find that what comes through them outruns your explanation. The question recognizes what is present while searching for its source. Familiarity tells you who belongs beside you; it does not tell you all that can come through them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Knowing where someone belongs means I already know the full measure and source of what they can carry.
THE ROOT
πόθεν
pothen
GROWS FROM
πο- + -θεν (interrogative base + source suffix)
From where; the suffix -θεν marks origin or movement from a place.
“Whence” in this verse is pothen. The question acknowledges that these things are present and asks where they come from. Its focus is their source, which the familiar account of this person cannot explain.
ALSO GROWS
hothen: From where; whence
ὅθεν
It shares the source-marking -θεν and keeps attention on where something originates.
ekeithen: From there
ἐκεῖθεν
The same suffix marks a point of origin, making clear that this question is about where something comes from.
anōthen: From above; from the top
ἄνωθεν
It uses the same source suffix while naming a particular point of origin.
ἀδελφαί
adelphai
GROWS FROM
ἀδελφ-
adelph-
Sibling or member of one family; the word is traditionally connected with the idea of sharing a womb.
English makes “sisters” sound like a category apart, while Greek places it in the same sibling word-family as “brother” and “brotherhood.” The verse sets shared kinship beside a question of origin: belonging is clear, but it does not explain the source of what he has.
ALSO GROWS
adelphos: Brother
ἀδελφός
It shares the sibling root with “sisters,” showing the family bond as one word-family.
adelphotēs: Brotherhood; sibling community
ἀδελφότης
It extends the same kinship root from individual siblings to a community bound as family.
THE PATTERN
What a person carries can exceed the familiar account others have of where it came from.
So the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man know letters, having never learned?Every good giving and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting and no shadow cast by turning.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.THE THREAD
For whoever does the will of my Father in the heavens, that one is my brother, and sister, and mother.The same Greek sibling word-family appears here, but kinship reaches beyond a shared household. This widens the meaning of “sister” while leaving the question of where a person’s gifts come from open.
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