What Does Matthew 21:3 Mean?
And if anyone says anything to you, you will say, The master has need of them, and straightway he will send them.
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 if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.THE KEY
The Lord’s need is answered by dispatch: what is required is sent into use without delay.
THE MEANING
A need is named, and the animals are sent toward the Lord’s purpose straightway. The verse makes the answer concrete: what is needed moves into use as soon as the need is spoken.
THE ROOT
ἀποστελεῖ
apostelei
GROWS FROM
ἀποστέλλω
apostellō
To send away or dispatch, setting someone or something on its way.
The verb here belongs to the same word family as ἀπόστολος (apostolos), a sent representative. English “send” can sound like simple movement, but this family carries the sense of dispatch; here, what is sent answers a stated need at once.
ALSO GROWS
apostolos: Sent representative; envoy.
ἀπόστολος
The same word family names someone sent to carry out a purpose, while this verse sends the animals toward a stated need.
apostolē: Sending; commission.
ἀποστολή
This noun makes the act of sending explicit, bringing out the movement already held in the verse’s “straightway he will send them.”
χρείαν
chreian
GROWS FROM
χρεία
chreia
Need, necessity, or use.
The Greek word for need can also name a matter of use or necessity. Beside “send,” it makes the need concrete: the animals are required for a purpose, and the response is to put them in motion.
ALSO GROWS
chreiazomai: To need; to require.
χρειάζομαι
This related verb expresses need as something that calls for a concrete answer.
achrēstos: Useless; of no use.
ἄχρηστος
This related word shows the other edge of the idea: what is needed has use for a purpose.
THE PATTERN
A named need becomes concrete when what can answer it is sent toward its place of use.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am; send me.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.THE THREAD
Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.Matthew uses ἀποστέλλω (apostellō) for the immediate sending of what is needed; John uses the same verb for the Father sending Jesus and Jesus sending others. The shared word opens from something sent toward a need to a purpose carried forward through those who are sent.
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