What Does Matthew 15:28 Mean?
Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your trust. Let it be for you as you will. And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
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 answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.THE KEY
The mother’s trust receives an answer that reaches her daughter where she is, so distance does not limit the healing named here.
THE MEANING
Her trust is named as great, and her daughter is healed from that very hour. The verse meets the reader now in the distance between loving someone and being able to reach them: physical separation does not define the limit of healing in this scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that care can reach another only through one’s own presence or touch.
THE ROOT
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
trust, reliance, or being found trustworthy
In English, “faith” can sound like an idea held in the mind; this word family connects trust with what is found trustworthy. Here, the mother’s trust is named while the healing reaches her daughter, extending its effect beyond the one who bears it.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: trust, believe
πιστεύω
The related verb gives trust the shape of relying on what is spoken, as the mother does in this scene.
pistos: trustworthy, reliable
πιστός
The same family holds both the act of trusting and the quality of what can be trusted.
peithō: persuade, be persuaded
πείθω
Its related word family links trust with being persuaded into reliance, rather than merely holding an opinion.
ἰάθη
iathē
GROWS FROM
ἰα-
ia-
heal, cure
“Made whole” here names a healing: the Greek says that the daughter was healed, and the verse anchors it to a specific hour. It holds the mother’s trust beside an actual recovery, not an achievement the daughter adds for herself.
ALSO GROWS
iaomai: heal, cure
ἰάομαι
This is the verb’s dictionary form, making clear that the daughter’s change is described as healing.
iasis: healing, cure
ἴασις
This related noun names the restoration that the verse says reaches the daughter.
iatros: physician
ἰατρός
The related word names one associated with healing, keeping the root’s focus on recovery.
THE PATTERN
Trust can open a path of healing that reaches someone absent from the one asking.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And Jesus said to the commander of a hundred, Go; as you have leaned your full weight, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed in that same hour.Jesus said to him, Go on your way; your son lives. And the man trusted the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and he went on his way.THE THREAD
And Jesus said to the commander of a hundred, Go; as you have leaned your full weight, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed in that same hour.The centurion’s “believed” is a verb from the same Greek word family as the “trust” praised here. In both scenes, that trust is followed by healing that reaches an absent child or servant.
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