What Does Matthew 18:21 Mean?
Then Peter came near to him and said, Lord, how many times shall my brother miss the mark against me, and I release him? Until seven times?
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 came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?THE KEY
The verse exposes the arithmetic inside forgiveness: the injury may repeat, but Peter wants to know when release runs out.
THE MEANING
You can recognize the moment an injury becomes a tally: how many times can this person wrong you before release ends? Peter names the wrong as sin against him and asks whether even forgiveness has a countable edge.
THE ROOT
ἀφήσω
aphēsō
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + ἵημι (apo + hiēmi)
To send away; let go, release.
“release him” in this verse is aphēsō. Peter’s word for “forgive” is ἀφήσω (aphēsō, “I will release”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) and ἵημι (hiēmi, “send” or “let go”). The verb makes forgiveness an act of releasing; Matthew uses this same word with debts, so the image is not that the wrong never happened, but that its claim can be let go.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, remission.
ἄφεσις
This noun names release from the same word family, keeping the act of letting go visible where English may say “remission.”
aphetós: Released, let go.
ἀφετός
This adjective describes the state that follows release, extending the verb’s image from the act to what has been let go.
ἁμαρτήσει
hamartēsei
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρταν-
hamartan-
To miss, err, or fail to attain.
“miss the mark against me” in this verse is hamartēsei. Before Peter asks about release, he calls the act ἁμαρτήσει (hamartēsei, “will sin” or “will miss”). Its word family includes ἁμαρτία (hamartía, “missing,” “error,” or “sin”): the wrong remains named as a real wrong even while its claim is considered for release.
ALSO GROWS
hamartía: Missing, error, sin.
ἁμαρτία
The related noun makes the shared idea of missing or erring audible beneath Peter’s word for sin.
hamártēma: Error, wrong, sin.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun keeps attention on the wrong itself, not only on the feeling it leaves behind.
THE PATTERN
Release can follow a wrong that remains plainly named as a trespass.
So you shall say to Joseph, "Release, I pray you now, the rebellion of your brothers, and their falling short, for they did you evil. And now, we pray you, release the rebellion of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept as they spoke to him.Watch yourselves. If your brother misses the mark against you, rebuke him; and if he turns, release him. And if he misses the mark against you seven times in a day, and seven times turns back to you, saying, I turn, and you will release him.Holding up one another, and releasing one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, just as the Anointed One released you, so also you do.THE THREAD
And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.The Greek verb translated “forgive” here is the same verb Peter uses in Matthew 18:21. In the prayer it releases debts; in Peter’s question it releases the claim against someone who has wronged him, linking forgiveness to letting go of what is owed.
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