What Does Matthew 15:8 Mean?
This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips; but their heart is held far from me.
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
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.THE KEY
A mouth can speak honor while the heart remains far, because spoken reverence and inward nearness are not the same thing.
THE MEANING
Words can draw near and honor me while the heart stays distant. The gap between the lips and the heart shows that speech alone does not make a person inwardly near. This verse names that distance as something present now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that saying reverent words proves inward nearness.
THE ROOT
τιμάω
timaō
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
tim-
To value or price; honor is value accorded.
“honoureth” in this verse is timaō. The word for honoring belongs to the same family as words for value and preciousness. The lips can speak honor, while the heart’s inward regard remains distant.
ALSO GROWS
timē: value, price, honor
τιμή
The same word family makes honor an expression of worth, sharpening the gap between what the lips say and what the heart holds.
timios: precious, valuable
τίμιος
The language of honor shares a root with preciousness, linking praise to the worth a person assigns.
atimazō: dishonor, treat as worthless
ἀτιμάζω
This opposite branch shows that the root concerns the worth given or withheld.
πόρρω ἀπέχει
porrō apéchei
GROWS FROM
ἀπέχω
apékhō
To keep away or be distant; the verb is formed with ἀπό (apó, away) and ἔχω (ékhō, hold).
“held far from me” in this verse is porrō apéchei. The Greek pairs “far” with a verb meaning “be distant” or “keep away.” It describes the heart’s present relation to me, without saying that the distance is deliberate.
ALSO GROWS
apékhō: keep away, be distant
ἀπέχω
This is the verb in the phrase describing the heart’s distance.
apokhē: abstention, refraining
ἀποχή
This related word carries the idea of holding oneself back, echoing the separation named here.
καρδία
kardia
GROWS FROM
καρδ-
kard-
The heart as the inward center of thought and feeling.
The heart here names the inward center that the lips cannot substitute for. Greek compounds use this same word for the “knower of hearts” and for “hardness of heart,” showing how inward knowing and inward condition are both bound to the heart.
ALSO GROWS
kardiognōstēs: knower of hearts
καρδιογνώστης
This compound makes the heart an inward reality that can be known beyond what the lips profess.
sklērokardia: hardness of heart
σκληροκαρδία
This compound shows the heart’s condition as an inward quality, distinct from outward words.
THE PATTERN
Spoken devotion can coexist with inward distance, while the heart’s abundance also finds expression through the mouth.
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.You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.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
You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.The Greek καρδία (kardia, “heart”) appears in both verses, paired here with στόμα (stoma, “mouth”). Matthew 15:8 shows that lips can perform honor while the heart remains distant; Matthew 12:34 shows the heart’s abundance finding its way into speech.
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