What Does Matthew 16:2 Mean?
He answered and said to them, When evening comes, you say, It will be a good sky, for the sky burns red.
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
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.THE KEY
The Greek pictures the red sky as fire-colored, and that visible fire becomes a forecast of fair weather.
THE MEANING
You read the evening sky as a sign: its fire-red color becomes a forecast of fair weather. What you notice in the world already shapes what you expect next.
THE ROOT
πυρράζει
pyrrazei
GROWS FROM
πῦρ
pyr
Fire; that which burns.
“burns red” in this verse is pyrrazei. The word translated “red” carries the image of fire: the sky is described as flame-colored. Its color is not just scenery here; it is the visible sign from which the forecast is read.
ALSO GROWS
pyrros: Fiery red; flame-colored.
πυρρός
This related word makes the color’s fire-image explicit: the sky’s hue is read as a sign.
pyr: Fire.
πῦρ
The fire-word at the root gives “red” its vivid image and links the sky’s appearance to the forecast.
THE PATTERN
People turn visible features of the sky into practical expectations.
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to part the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for appointed times, and for days and years."And he said also to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising out of the west, straightaway you say, 'A downpour is coming,' and so it becomes."And in the morning, you say, Today, a winter storm, for the sky burns red and frowns. You masked ones, you know how to read the face of the sky, but the signs of the seasons you cannot read?THE THREAD
And in the morning, you say, Today, a winter storm, for the sky burns red and frowns. You masked ones, you know how to read the face of the sky, but the signs of the seasons you cannot read?Verse 2 shows people reading the sky’s color as evidence about the weather; verse 3 sets that familiar skill beside their failure to discern the signs of the times. Together, the verses make this small forecast a measure of what their discernment can and cannot see.
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