What Does Matthew 20:32 Mean?
And Jesus stood, and called out to them, and said, What do you want me to do for 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 Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you?THE KEY
The one with power does not presume what healing means to them; he gives their desire a voice before acting.
THE MEANING
You are met as someone whose desire can be spoken, not merely as a need to be diagnosed from the outside. The power to act pauses, calls you into direct address, and asks what you want done for you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an obvious need makes your own desire unnecessary to hear.
THE ROOT
θέλετε
thelete
GROWS FROM
θελ
The Greek stem θελ (thel) means to will, wish, or desire.
“do you want” in this verse is thelete. The question uses the same root for wanting and willing: Jesus leaves the answer with the people before him instead of deciding what they need. English can make “What will ye?” sound formal, but the Greek asks plainly what they want.
ALSO GROWS
thelēma: will, desire
θέλημα
This noun from the same θελ stem shows that a person’s wanting is something that can be named.
thelēsis: willing, wish
θέλησις
This related form keeps the focus on the act of willing that Jesus invites them to express.
ἐφώνησεν
ephōnēsen
GROWS FROM
φων
The Greek base φων (phōn) means sound or voice.
The word translated “called” carries the sense of voice and sound. The men who have been calling out are now directly addressed; the exchange turns their cries into a conversation.
ALSO GROWS
phōnē: voice, sound
φωνή
This same-root word makes audible the voice already contained in “called.”
prosphōneō: address, call to
προσφωνέω
This related verb describes speaking directly to someone, as Jesus does here.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
The Hebrew root ישע (y-š-ʿ) means to deliver, bring out of distress, and make room to move freely.
Jesus’ name is the Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, deliverance), carried into Greek as Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous, Jesus). Here that name’s nature appears in a pause, a call, and a question that lets the men express what deliverance means to them.
ALSO GROWS
yāshaʿ: deliver, bring to safety
יָשַׁע
The verb names the movement from distress toward room and safety.
yeshuʿāh: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun gives the same root as a name for the release the encounter makes possible.
môshîaʿ: deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names the one who brings deliverance, echoing the name Yeshua.
THE PATTERN
A response honors a person by hearing what they want before acting on their need.
In Gibeon the LORD showed himself to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you.The one who returns a word before he hears it, folly and shame are his.When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been that way a long time already, he said to him, Do you want to become whole?THE THREAD
When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been that way a long time already, he said to him, Do you want to become whole?Both questions use θέλω (thelō, want or will), asking the person what they desire before healing takes place. The shared root makes restoration personal: the question receives the person’s own answer.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us