What Does Matthew 17:9 Mean?
And as they stepped down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell what you have seen to no one, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
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
And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.THE KEY
The vision is not denied by silence; its telling waits for the resurrection that makes it legible.
THE MEANING
What is perceived can remain unspoken until the event that clarifies it arrives. Here, the telling waits for the Son of man to be raised from the dead; the vision’s meaning is bound to that rising.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A true revelation does not have to be spoken immediately to be true; this verse ties its telling to the moment that makes its meaning clear.
THE ROOT
ἐγερθῇ
egerthē
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
to wake, raise, or rouse
“raised” in this verse is egerthē. The Greek verb can describe waking someone and raising the dead. The vision’s telling is linked to this awakening: what remains guarded until the rising becomes speakable when it arrives.
ALSO GROWS
egeire: arise, awake
ἔγειρε
In Mark 5:41 this is the command to rise, showing the verb’s language of awakening.
egeirontai: are raised
ἐγείρονται
Matthew 11:5 uses the same verb for the dead being raised, echoing the condition named here.
ὅραμα
horama
GROWS FROM
ὁράω
horaō
to see, look upon, or perceive
“what you have seen” in this verse is horama. A horama is something seen, from ὁράω (horaō), to see or perceive. The verse keeps seeing and speaking distinct: perception has occurred, but its telling waits.
ALSO GROWS
horasis: sight, appearance, or vision
ὅρασις
This related word keeps vision within the language of seeing, rather than treating it as speech already delivered.
horatos: visible, able to be seen
ὁρατός
This branch describes what can be seen, underscoring that perceiving something and announcing it are separate acts.
THE PATTERN
What is true can be held from speech until its appointed time or the hearer’s capacity arrives.
A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to hush, and a time to speak.But you, Daniel, stop up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall multiply.I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot carry them now.THE THREAD
He is not here, for he was raised, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.“Risen” in both verses comes from ἐγείρω (egeirō), meaning to wake or raise. The rising that ends the command’s period of silence becomes the ground for the announcement: “He is risen.”
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