What Does Matthew 19:19 Mean?
Give weight to your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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
Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.THE KEY
The word translated “neighbour” means the one who is near, folding the person beside you into the same measure you use for yourself.
THE MEANING
This verse holds the worth of those nearest to you alongside your own. Your parents are honored as parents; the person near you is loved by the same measure that makes your own life matter. Family regard and neighbor-love meet in recognizing another person’s worth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s well-being counts less simply because it is not your own.
THE ROOT
πλησίον
plēsion
GROWS FROM
πλησι-
plēsi-
Near; close by.
“neighbor” in this verse is plēsion. The English noun can sound like a social category, while the Greek word names the one who is near. The command brings that person within the same measure of regard as the self.
ALSO GROWS
plēsios: near, neighboring
πλησίος
This related form makes the sense of nearness in “neighbour” explicit.
plēsiázō: to approach, draw near
πλησιάζω
This verb from the same word family links nearness with coming close to someone.
τίμα
tima
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
tim-
Value, worth, price.
“Give weight to” in this verse is tima. The command to honor your parents carries the language of recognizing their value. Honor is more than outward deference: the word also holds the sense of treating someone as precious.
ALSO GROWS
timē: value, price, honor
τιμή
This noun shows the shared root linking honor with the value assigned to someone.
timios: precious, valuable, honored
τίμιος
This related word makes visible the worth carried within the command to honor.
THE PATTERN
Regard for another person reaches its clearest measure when their worth is held alongside your own.
You shall not avenge, nor hold a grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.Give weight to your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise.Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.THE THREAD
You shall not avenge, nor hold a grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.The Greek text of Leviticus uses πλησίον (plēsion, “the one who is near”), the same word Matthew uses for “neighbour.” That shared word ties the command to the person near you, whose well-being is held to the same measure as your own.
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