What Does Matthew 15:10 Mean?
And he called the crowd to himself and said to them, Hear, and put it together.
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 he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:THE KEY
Understanding is hearing that has gathered its pieces into a whole.
THE MEANING
The verse names two distinct movements within you: words reach you, and their meaning comes together. You hear, and what you hear gathers into understanding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that hearing the words means their meaning has already landed.
THE ROOT
συνίετε
syniete
GROWS FROM
συνίημι
syniēmi
Bring together; understand by grasping how the parts fit.
“put it together” in this verse is syniete. The Greek verb pictures understanding as bringing things together into a coherent grasp. The verse holds hearing and this gathering together as distinct movements: sound reaches you, then meaning takes shape.
ALSO GROWS
synesis: Understanding or discernment
σύνεσις
This related noun names the grasp that emerges when the pieces come together.
synetos: Discerning or intelligent
συνετός
This related word describes someone marked by the ability to put things together and perceive their meaning.
Ἀκούετε
akouete
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
Hear, listen, receive a sound or message.
“Hear” in this verse is akouete. The Greek word family holds both the act of hearing and what arrives as a report. Here hearing stands beside a separate verb for understanding, so receiving the words and grasping them are joined but not collapsed.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing or a report received
ἀκοή
This branch connects listening with the message that reaches the listener.
hypakouō: Listen to or heed
ὑπακούω
This compound carries the same hearing-word into heeding, showing how listening can extend beyond receiving sound.
THE PATTERN
Words become discernment when hearing is joined to the work of understanding.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Therefore I speak to them in parables, because looking, they do not see; and hearing, they do not hear, nor do they put it together.Watch, then, how you hear and respond, for whoever has, to them will be given, and whoever has not, even what they seem to have will be lifted away from them.THE THREAD
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because looking, they do not see; and hearing, they do not hear, nor do they put it together.Matthew 13:13 uses the same Greek verb, συνίημι (syniēmi), to say that people hear but do not bring the meaning together. It opens this command as a distinction between words entering the ear and their meaning assembling within you.
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