What Does Matthew 21:27 Mean?
And they answered Jesus and said, We do not know. And he said to them, Nor do I tell you by what authority I do these things.
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 they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.THE KEY
The English “tell” hides the difference between a claim of not knowing and a deliberate refusal to speak.
THE MEANING
They say, “We cannot tell,” and Jesus answers, “Neither tell I you.” The first line claims no knowledge; the second withholds speech. Authority here includes the capacity to govern what is disclosed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that a question automatically obliges an answer; here authority includes the freedom to withhold disclosure.
THE ROOT
ἐξουσία
exousia
GROWS FROM
ἔξεστι
exesti
ἔξεστι (exesti) means “it is permitted” or “it is possible”; ἐξουσία (exousia) means authority, a right or scope to act.
The noun ἐξουσία (exousia, authority or right to act) grows from ἔξεστι (exesti, it is permitted): its shade is an authorized sphere of action, not merely force. Here, authority also governs disclosure; Jesus is not compelled to reveal the source on demand.
ALSO GROWS
exesti: It is permitted, possible, or lawful.
ἔξεστι
This verbal idea gives authority the shade of an allowed right or scope.
exousiazō: To exercise authority or have authority over.
ἐξουσιάζω
This branch shows authority as a capacity put into action.
οἴδαμεν
oidamen
GROWS FROM
εἴδω (eido) / οἶδα (oida)
εἴδω (eido) means “see” or “perceive”; οἶδα (oida) means “know,” with knowing connected to what has been seen or perceived.
“We do not know” in this verse is oidamen. The English “tell” conceals two Greek verbs: οἴδαμεν (oidamen, “we know”) in their reply and λέγω (legō, “I say” or “I speak”) in Jesus’ reply. They claim a lack of knowledge; he withholds speech, so the symmetry in English is not symmetry in the Greek.
ALSO GROWS
eido: To see or perceive.
εἴδω
Its connection with knowing makes their “cannot tell” a claim about perception.
eidos: Form or appearance.
εἶδος
This related seeing-word keeps knowing close to what is visibly presented.
THE PATTERN
What a person withholds or measures toward another can return as the measure of response received.
Whoever stops up his ear to the cry of the emptied one also cries out, and is not answered.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.And as you wish people would do to you, do the same to them.THE THREAD
And Jesus came near and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in the heavens and upon the earth.The word translated “authority” here is ἐξουσία (exousia, authority or right to act), the same word rendered “power” in this verse. This line names the full reach of what the unanswered exchange leaves undisclosed.
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