What Does Matthew 18:26 Mean?
The servant therefore fell down and bowed down to him, saying, Lord, be slow to heat with me, and I will give back all to you.
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
The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.THE KEY
He asks for time to repay a debt the story has already shown he cannot pay.
THE MEANING
A debt can feel so total that more time seems like the only possible rescue. The servant asks for patience, then promises complete repayment; need and self-settlement occupy the same plea. The verse holds the gap between asking another to bear the debt and believing you can still clear it alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that an impossible debt can be made payable simply by being given more time.
THE ROOT
ἀποδώσω
apodōsō
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant; ἀποδώσω is a form of ἀποδίδωμι, to give back or repay.
“give back all to you” in this verse is apodōsō. The promise to pay is literally framed as giving back. The same verb appears in Luke 7:42, where the debtors have nothing to give back, exposing the limit of the servant’s promise.
ALSO GROWS
apodidōmi: Give back, repay, or render what is due
ἀποδίδωμι
This is the verb behind the servant’s promise to repay everything.
metadidōmi: Share or impart
μεταδίδωμι
The same giving-root can describe sharing; here it is pressed into the harder promise of settling a debt.
μακροθύμησον
makrothymēson
GROWS FROM
μακροθυμέω (makrothumeō), from μακρός (makros) and θυμός (thymos)
To be slow to anger: to let the heat rise slowly.
“be slow to heat” in this verse is makrothymēson. The servant is asking the creditor to hold back his anger over time. The request for slowness to heat sits beside a vow of complete repayment, even though the debt is beyond his means.
ALSO GROWS
makrothymia: Patience, forbearance, slowness to anger
μακροθυμία
This noun names the restraint the servant asks the creditor to show him.
thymos: Anger, heat, or passionate impulse
θυμός
The heat within the compound makes “patience” more vivid: he asks for the creditor’s anger to be slow to flare.
THE PATTERN
When a debt cannot be repaid, release breaks the claim that more time alone can settle it.
And this is the word of the release. Every one whose hand has lent to his neighbor shall let it fall, and he shall not press it from his neighbor or from his brother, for it is called the LORD's release.And since they had nothing to give back, he released them both by favor. Tell me, then, which of them will love him most?Then the lord of that servant was stirred in his inward parts, and let him go, and released the debt.THE THREAD
And since they had nothing to give back, he released them both by favor. Tell me, then, which of them will love him most?Luke uses the same Greek verb for “pay” as the servant’s promise here. There, the debtors have nothing to give back, turning this promise into a sharper question: what happens when repayment is impossible?
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