What Does Matthew 22:1 Mean?
And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, and said,
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 answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,THE KEY
A parable places an image beside you, letting the likeness reveal what a direct statement may leave unseen.
THE MEANING
Jesus answers you through an image placed beside your life; the comparison itself becomes a way of seeing. The word “again” keeps the exchange open, making the answer part of a continuing encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Truth only comes through direct explanation. Here, the answer arrives through a parable that invites recognition through likeness.
THE ROOT
παραβολαῖς
parabolaîs
GROWS FROM
βαλ
The Greek stem bal- (βαλ-, “throw, cast, place”) appears in βάλλω and its compounds.
“parables” in this verse is parabolaîs. Greek παραβολή (parabolē, “parable, comparison”) comes through παραβάλλω (parabállō, “place beside”), from the stem βαλ-. A parable places an image alongside your life, allowing the likeness to disclose what a bare statement may leave unseen.
ALSO GROWS
bállō: Throw, cast, put
βάλλω
This basic verb gives the stem its sense of placing or casting something; a parable casts an image alongside the hearer.
parabállō: Place beside, compare
παραβάλλω
This compound makes the parable’s structure visible: one thing is placed beside another so their likeness can be seen.
symbállō: Bring together, compare, consider
συμβάλλω
The same stem appears where things are brought together for comparison, echoing how a parable joins an image and the reader’s experience.
THE PATTERN
Truth is placed beside the hearer in an image, so recognition can reveal what direct explanation alone may not.
I will open my mouth in a likeness, and pour out riddles of old.Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a likeness to the house of Israel.And with many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they could hear it.THE THREAD
Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables, and he spoke nothing to them without a parable.Both verses use παραβολή (parabolē, “parable, comparison”), from παραβάλλω (parabállō, “place beside”). Matthew 13:34 makes explicit what this verse announces: the image placed beside the hearer is a way Jesus speaks.
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