What Does Matthew 18:29 Mean?
And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and pleaded with him, saying, Be slow to heat with me, and I will give it back 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
And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.THE KEY
He asks for patience, not release: the plea leaves the debt standing and promises full repayment.
THE MEANING
A plea for patience can leave the debt fully standing: the speaker asks for time and promises to pay everything. The one asking is a fellow servant, so the request rises within a shared condition of service and debt.
THE ROOT
Μακροθύμησον
makrothymēson
GROWS FROM
μακροθυμ-
makrothym-
Long-tempered: μακρός (makros) means “long,” and θυμός (thymos) means “anger” or “heat”, slow to heat.
“Be slow to heat” in this verse is makrothymēson. The word asks someone to hold back anger over time, not merely to wait. English “patience” can hide the heat that is being kept in check, while the promise to pay keeps the debt itself in place.
ALSO GROWS
makrothymia: patience, long-suffering
μακροθυμία
This noun names the sustained restraint that the servant asks the other to show.
makrothymos: long-tempered, patient
μακρόθυμος
This adjective describes the quality of being slow to heat that the request calls upon.
ἀποδώσω
apodōsō
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give; with ἀπό (apo, “back”), the compound ἀποδίδωμι means to give back, render, or repay.
“give it back to you” in this verse is apodōsō. The promised payment is phrased as giving back what is owed. The speaker does not ask for the debt to disappear; he asks for time to return all of it.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: give
δίδωμι
This is the verb at the center of the repayment word: the promise is to give what is owed.
apodosis: repayment, recompense
ἀπόδοσις
This related noun names the return that the speaker promises will settle the debt.
σύνδουλος
syndoulos
GROWS FROM
δουλ-
doul-
Servant; σύν (syn) means “with,” so σύνδουλος means a servant alongside another servant.
“fellowservant” in this verse is syndoulos. The Greek compounds “with” and “servant”: the person pleading shares the other’s servant condition. The request for patience is made between fellow servants within the same world of obligation.
ALSO GROWS
doulos: servant
δοῦλος
This is the shared status named in the compound fellowservant.
douleuō: serve, be a servant
δουλεύω
The related verb keeps the focus on a condition of service shared by both people.
THE PATTERN
Long patience delays heat so another response or outcome can still arrive.
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Or do you look down upon the fullness of his kindness, and the holding back, and the slowness to heat, not perceiving that the kindness of God leads you to turning?Be slow to heat therefore, brethren, until the arrival of the LORD. Look, the one who works the soil waits for the costly fruit of the earth, and is slow to heat over it until he takes in the early and late rain.THE THREAD
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.This earlier plea uses the same Greek verb, Μακροθύμησον (makrothymēson), and the same promise to pay everything. The repeated words make the request echo a plea that was met with release in the verse that follows.
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