What Does Matthew 20:20 Mean?
Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's sons with her sons, bowing down to him, and asking something of him.
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 came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.THE KEY
She bows and asks in the same approach: reverence does not erase the specific thing she wants.
THE MEANING
You can appear before Jesus with both reverence and a particular desire. The bowed posture does not cancel the request; both are present in one encounter. The answer remains open here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must hide what you want in order to approach with reverence.
THE ROOT
αἰτοῦσα
aitousa from
GROWS FROM
αἰτε-
aite-
to ask or request
“asking something” in this verse is aitousa from. The participle rendered “desiring” comes from a verb for asking or requesting. The want here is more than an inward wish: it has taken the shape of a request brought to Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
aitēma: request, petition
αἴτημα
This noun from the same family gives the desire a concrete form: something asked for.
aitēsis: request, act of asking
αἴτησις
This branch keeps the emphasis on the act of bringing a want forward, as the woman does here.
προσκυνοῦσα
proskynousa from
GROWS FROM
προσκυν-
proskyn-
to bow down or prostrate oneself before someone
“bowing down” in this verse is proskynousa from. This verb carries the physical image of bowing before another. The verse holds that embodied gesture alongside a request, so reverence has a visible posture while desire is brought forward.
ALSO GROWS
proskynēsis: bowing, prostration
προσκύνησις
This noun names the posture contained in the action: the approach is bodily, not only inward.
proskynētēs: one who bows down, worshipper
προσκυνητής
This related noun describes a person by the same bowing action seen in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Bowing gives reverence a bodily form and may accompany a concrete plea.
And behold, a leper came and bowed down before him, saying, Lord, if you will, you are able to make me clean.And the man bent his head, and bowed down to the LORD.Enter, let us bow down and kneel before the face of the LORD who makes us.THE THREAD
But Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup I will drink, and to be immersed in the immersion I am immersed in? They said to him, We are able.The verb behind “desiring” here belongs to the same ask-family Jesus uses when he says, “what ye ask.” The request is already present in this approach; the next exchange turns toward what that request contains.
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