What Does Matthew 15:7 Mean?
You masked ones, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
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
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,THE KEY
The verse names devotion as a performance when the heart is elsewhere, and Isaiah’s words expose the gap.
THE MEANING
Here the reader meets a sharp name for devotion that has become a performance: the mouth speaks honor while the heart remains far from God. Isaiah’s words fit that divide, naming the condition present in the hearer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Reverent language alone proves that the heart is near to God.
THE ROOT
ὑποκριταί
hypokritai
GROWS FROM
ὑποκρίνομαι
hypokrinomai
To act a part or pretend; the related noun can mean an actor and, by extension, a pretender.
“masked ones” in this verse is hypokritai. The Greek word names a performed identity, not merely a mistake or weakness. Beside Isaiah’s words, it exposes public language staged as devotion while the heart is elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
hypokrisis: Acting, pretense, or hypocrisy.
ὑπόκρισις
It shows that the charge concerns a performed display, matching the gap between spoken honor and inward distance.
hypokritēs: An actor or pretender.
ὑποκριτής
The actor image reveals how religious words can take on a role that does not express the heart.
ἐπροφήτευσεν
eprophēteusen
GROWS FROM
φημί (phēmi), within προφητεύω (prophēteuō)
φημί (phēmi) means to say or speak; the compound carries the sense of speaking forth.
“prophesy” in this verse is eprophēteusen. The word family joins the act of prophesying with the prophet and the prophetic utterance. Here prophecy speaks directly to the condition in view, exposing the distance between a person’s words and heart.
ALSO GROWS
prophētēs: A prophet, one who speaks a message.
προφήτης
The prophet gives voice to what is hidden beneath outward appearance.
prophēteia: Prophecy or a prophetic utterance.
προφητεία
It connects the speaking in this verse to a message that reveals the hearer’s inward condition.
THE PATTERN
Religious speech loses its truth when outward honor separates from inward allegiance.
And the Lord says, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips give me weight, but their heart has gone far from me, and their awe of me is a command of men, trained.Yet they coaxed him with their mouth, and with their tongue ran dry toward him.If anyone among you seems to be devout, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this one's service is empty.THE THREAD
And the Lord says, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips give me weight, but their heart has gone far from me, and their awe of me is a command of men, trained.Matthew names Isaiah as the speech that fits this moment; Isaiah spells out the divide compressed in “hypocrites”: lips approach while the heart is far away. The prophecy exposes inward distance that is present beneath outward honor.
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