What Does Matthew 14:35 Mean?
And when the men of that place knew him on sight, they sent out into all the land around, and carried to him all who were ill.
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 when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased;THE KEY
Recognition of him becomes a shared movement that carries the suffering toward his presence.
THE MEANING
When you perceive who is present, knowing moves outward through your surroundings. The sick are not left to approach alone; people carry them to him. The verse holds recognition, spreading, and care as one movement happening now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that the sick must make their way to healing alone: here, others carry them.
THE ROOT
ἐπιγνόντες
epignóntes
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“knew him on sight” in this verse is epignóntes. The word here means recognizing him, not merely receiving information about him. Recognition becomes the ignition point: it leads to a message sent across the region and then to people carrying the sick toward him.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: Knowledge, knowing
γνῶσις
This related word shows that the verse’s recognition belongs to a family of knowing and perception.
epignōsis: Recognition, fuller knowledge
ἐπίγνωσις
This related form echoes the verse’s movement from perceiving who he is to acting on that recognition.
ἀπέστειλαν
apesteilan
GROWS FROM
στέλλω
stellō
To send or dispatch; in ἀποστέλλω (apostellō), to send out or away.
“sent out” in this verse is apesteilan. The men do not keep their recognition private; they send it across the whole surrounding region. The same word family names both the act of sending and the messenger who is sent.
ALSO GROWS
apóstolos: Messenger, one sent
ἀπόστολος
This branch makes visible the link between spreading the news and the people who carry it.
apostolē: Sending, commission
ἀποστολή
This branch shares the seed of the dispatch that carries recognition through the region.
προσήνεγκαν
prosēnenkan
GROWS FROM
φέρω
pherō
To carry or bear; προσφέρω (prosphérō) means to carry toward or bring.
“carried to him” in this verse is prosēnenkan. The verb’s root is carrying, and its prefix points toward: the sick are borne into proximity with him. Care takes physical form as others carry those who are suffering.
ALSO GROWS
prosphérō: Carry toward, bring, present
προσφέρω
This is the verb family behind the act of bringing the sick to him.
anaphérō: Carry up, offer
ἀναφέρω
The same carrying root appears when something is borne upward or presented.
diaphérō: Carry across, differ or surpass
διαφέρω
This compound keeps the sense of carrying while adding movement across or distinction.
THE PATTERN
When healing is recognized, the news travels and the suffering are brought within reach.
And she said to her mistress, Would that my lord might meet the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would gather him from his leprosy. And one went in and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid from the land of Israel.And the sound of him went out through all Syria, and they carried to him all who were ill, held by many-colored sicknesses and torments, and those gripped by demons, and those struck by the moon, and those who were paralyzed, and he healed them.And a crowd also gathered from the cities all around to Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those pressed upon by unclean breaths, and every one of them was healed.THE THREAD
I am the good shepherd. I perceive my own, and my own perceive me.The same root, γινώσκω (ginōskō), meaning to know or perceive, stands behind “had knowledge” here and “know” in this verse. Matthew shows recognition moving outward into care; John opens that recognition as a knowing shared between the shepherd and his own.
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