What Does Matthew 18:22 Mean?

Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Matthew 18:22 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

THE KEY

Jesus turns the exact scale Lamech used to multiply vengeance toward release, so forgiveness has no quota.

THE MEANING

When harm returns, the urge is to keep score; this answer makes release outgrow the score. The formula that multiplies vengeance now measures letting go, so release has no fixed stopping point.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that a person’s repeated harm exhausts your forgiveness after a set number of times.

THE ROOT

ἀφίημι

aphiēmi

GROWS FROM

⁨ἵημι⁩ (hiēmi), with ⁨ἀπό⁩ (apo, away)

Send away; let go.

Peter’s verb can mean forgive, leave, or let go. Its word family presents forgiveness as release: the debt is let go of, while the injury is not denied.

ALSO GROWS

aphéntes: Having left or let go

ἀφέντες

In Matthew 4:20, the same verb describes the disciples leaving their nets; forgiveness and leaving share the movement of letting go.

áphesis: Release, remission

ἄφεσις

This related noun names forgiveness as release, making clear what the answer’s unbounded measure applies to.

THE PATTERN

The measure that multiplies vengeance is redirected toward release, which outgrows counting.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Genesis 4:24 · SDVThe same seventyfold scale that magnifies vengeance echoes here as a measure for release.

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.

Luke 17:4 · SDVEven when the offense is counted repeatedly, forgiveness remains open each time.

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.

Colossians 3:13 · SDVRelease reaches even where there is a real grievance; it does not depend on pretending the hurt is absent.

THE THREAD

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Genesis 4:24 · SDV

The Greek wording for seventy times seven echoes the wording for Lamech’s multiplied vengeance. Jesus places that same scale in the answer to a question about release, turning the multiplication of retaliation toward letting go.

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