What Does Matthew 19:2 Mean?

And great crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

Matthew 19:2 · 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

And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

THE KEY

The word translated “healed” also carries the sense of attending to someone: healing arrives as care given where the people already are.

THE MEANING

The scene speaks now: people draw near to Jesus, and he attends to them where they are. Healing happens there, in the place where their need and his presence meet.

THE ROOT

θεράπευσεν

etherapeusen

GROWS FROM

θεραπευ-

therapeu-

Attend to, serve, or care for; also treat or heal.

The Greek verb translated “healed” can describe attending to someone as well as healing them. It holds care and cure together: Jesus’ response is personal attention that restores.

ALSO GROWS

therapōn: An attendant or servant.

θεράπων

This related word makes the sense of attending visible: healing here is care given to people, not just a change in their condition.

therapeia: Attendance, service, or medical treatment and healing.

θεραπεία

This related noun holds service and healing together, echoing the way Jesus attends to the people and heals them there.

THE PATTERN

Healing reaches people within the place where they gather near.

He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.

Psalm 107:20 · SDVHealing reaches people in their distress and is joined with being brought out of destruction.

And the whole crowd sought to touch him, for strength went out from him and healed them all.

Luke 6:19 · SDVThe gathered multitude draws near, and healing reaches them in that shared place of contact.

THE THREAD

But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there, and great crowds followed him, and he healed them all.

Matthew 12:15 · SDV

Matthew 12:15 uses the same Greek verb, ⁨θεραπεύω⁩ (therapeuō), for “healed” and pairs it with multitudes following Jesus. Its “all” makes explicit the breadth held within “them” here.

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