What Does Matthew 19:27 Mean?
Then Peter answered and said to him, Look, we have let go of all things and followed you. What then will be ours?
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
Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?THE KEY
Peter’s “forsaken” names a letting go that also carries the sense of release, so his question asks what opens beyond what he has left behind.
THE MEANING
The verse holds release and expectation together: Peter names what he has left, the one he follows, and the question of what comes next. His question stays plain and unresolved here; the cost of following does not make the desire for an answer disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that genuine loyalty must stay silent about what it expects in return.
THE ROOT
ἀφήκαμεν
aphēkamen
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apo, “away from”) + ἵημι (hiēmi, “send” or “let go”)
To send away or let go; by extension, to leave behind, permit, or forgive.
“let go of” in this verse is aphēkamen. “Forsaken” is a form of ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, to leave or release), a verb also used for forgiving debts. In this word family, leaving something behind and releasing a claim share the language of letting go; Peter’s question holds both the cost and the possibility of release.
ALSO GROWS
hiēmi: Send or let go.
ἵημι
This verb at the heart of ἀφίημι gives Peter’s “forsaken” the added sense of something released or sent away.
aphesis: Release, remission, or forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
The related noun names release in a form that can apply to a claim or debt, opening a connection to the forgiveness language of Matthew 6:12.
THE PATTERN
Leaving what is familiar can mark the beginning of a new following, while the question of what comes next remains part of the journey.
And the LORD said to Abram, Go away from your land, from your land of birth, and from your father's house, to the land I will let you see.And Ruth said, Do not press me to let go of you, or to turn back from following after you. For where you walk, I will walk, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your God my God.Yes indeed, I count all things as loss, because of the surpassing of knowing Jesus the Anointed One, my Lord; for whom I have lost all things, and I count them as dung, that I may gain the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.Matthew 19:27 uses ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, to leave or release) for what the disciples have “forsaken”; Matthew 6:12 uses the same verb for forgiving debts. The shared word opens a connection between leaving something behind and releasing a claim.
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