What Does Matthew 14:24 Mean?
But the boat was already many stadia from the land, tormented by the waves, for the wind was set against 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
But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.THE KEY
The ship is already in the middle of the sea when the opposing wind batters it.
THE MEANING
You can be partway through a crossing and still meet conditions pushing against you. The ship is in the midst of the sea, and the waves are battering it because the wind is contrary. The resistance does not erase where the ship is.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that being on course means the resistance should have ended.
THE ROOT
βασανιζόμενον
basanizomenon
GROWS FROM
βάσανος
basanos
Touchstone; also torment or torture. The related verb means to test or torment.
“tormented by the waves” in this verse is basanizomenon. The Greek verb βασανιζόμενον (basanizomenon, “being tormented”) belongs to the same word family as the verb for the disciples’ “toiling” in Mark 6:48. English separates the battered ship from the rowers’ strain, while Greek names both with the language of torment and pressure.
ALSO GROWS
basanos: Touchstone; also torment or torture.
βάσανος
Its touchstone sense evokes something put under pressure, while its later sense names torment, the pressure the verse gives to the ship’s crossing.
basanismos: Torment or torture.
βασανισμός
This noun from the same word family makes clear that the ship is described as enduring force, not merely moving on rough water.
THE PATTERN
A vessel can be underway while wind and waves work against its passage.
For he says, and raises the breath of the storm, and it lifts its waves.But the LORD hurled a great breath onto the sea, and there was a mighty storm in the sea, so that the ship reckoned it would be broken.And when we had put out from there, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were facing us.THE THREAD
And he saw them straining at the oars, for the wind was in their faces, and about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking upon the sea, and he wanted to pass them by.Matthew’s βασανιζόμενον (basanizomenon, “being tormented”) and Mark’s βασανιζομένους (basanizomenous, “toiling”) share the same Greek root. The waves batter the ship in one verse; the rowers strain against the same contrary wind in the other.
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