What Does Matthew 15:21 Mean?
Then Jesus went from there and withdrew into the regions of Tyre and Sidon.
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
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.THE KEY
The Greek verb for departed belongs to a word family of movement, room, and region, joining Jesus’s departure to his movement into space.
THE MEANING
Jesus leaves one place and moves into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. His name carries deliverance as its nature, and here that nature is already moving toward territory beyond the familiar center.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that deliverance is confined to familiar territory: Jesus is already moving toward the edges.
THE ROOT
ἀνεχώρησεν
anechōrēsen
GROWS FROM
χωρ-
Space or place; movement through space, having room, or making room.
“withdrew” in this verse is anechōrēsen. The Greek verb means to withdraw or depart, while its χωρ- word family also speaks of room and place. English emphasizes leaving; the Greek root connects that departure with movement into a region.
ALSO GROWS
chōréō: To go or advance; to make room or have room.
χωρέω
This related verb joins movement with the idea of room, deepening the spatial force of Jesus’s departure.
chōra: Land, country, or region.
χώρα
The same consonants appear in a word for a region, linking the verb of movement to the land Jesus enters.
chōrízō: To separate or part.
χωρίζω
This related form carries the sense of separation, a boundary-crossing shade within the same word family.
μέρη
merē
GROWS FROM
μερ-
A part, portion, or share.
The Greek names these places as τὰ μέρη, parts or regions; the KJV’s coasts can suggest shoreline. The word presents Jesus as moving into the regions of Tyre and Sidon, not merely leaving somewhere behind.
ALSO GROWS
méros: A part, portion, or region.
μέρος
This is the singular form behind μέρη, making the destination a set of distinct regions.
merízō: To divide or distribute into parts.
μερίζω
The same consonants connect the named regions with the idea of portions or divisions of space.
merís: A portion or share.
μερίς
This related word keeps the sense of a distinct portion, echoing the verse’s naming of specific regions.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yēshūaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver, bringing one out of constriction toward safety and spaciousness.
“Jesus” in this verse is Yēshūaʿ. The name carries deliverance as nature, not merely as a label. In this verse, that nature is already in motion toward territory beyond the familiar center.
ALSO GROWS
yāshaʿ: To deliver or bring to safety.
יָשַׁע
This verb is the seed of the name’s deliverance meaning.
yeshuʿah: Deliverance or rescue.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun makes the nature carried in the name explicit as deliverance.
moshīaʿ: A deliverer or rescuer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names the one who brings deliverance, connecting the name’s root to the person moving toward Tyre and Sidon.
THE PATTERN
The path of deliverance crosses borders into places presumed outside its reach.
Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and settle there. Look, I have commanded a widowed woman there to feed you.And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant, to stand up the tribes of Jacob, and to turn back the guarded ones of Israel. I will also set you as a light for the nations, that you may be my deliverance to the edge of the earth.And he had to go through Samaria.THE THREAD
I know that you are Abraham's seed, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no room in you.The verb translated departed in Matthew and the phrase hath no place here share the Greek root χωρ-. One names movement into a region; the other names whether a word finds room within a person, joining geography and receptivity through the same root.
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