What Does Matthew 22:10 Mean?
So those servants went out to the crossroads, and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was filled with those who reclined.
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
So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.THE KEY
The invitation gathers people on both sides of the good-and-bad line, so the feast’s fullness does not depend on a spotless guest list.
THE MEANING
You are met by an invitation that gathers people as they are found, both bad and good. The hall fills with guests, and the verse places its fullness in a gathering that includes both.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The invitation itself is not restricted to those already counted as good.
THE ROOT
συνήγαγον
synēgagon
GROWS FROM
ἄγω (agō), in συνάγω (synagō)
ἄγω means to lead or bring; with σύν (syn, together), συνάγω means to bring together.
“gathered together” in this verse is synēgagon. The Greek verb gathers more than a set of individuals: it pictures people being brought together into one place. English preserves the gathering, while the Greek also lets you hear the movement of bringing them into a shared assembly.
ALSO GROWS
synagōgē: assembly or gathering
συναγωγή
The assembly is a group brought together, echoing the guests gathered into the wedding hall.
apagō: lead or bring away
ἀπάγω
This compound shares ἄγω, showing the root’s basic sense of movement by leading or bringing.
ἐπλήσθη
eplēsthē
GROWS FROM
πληθ- (plēth-), from πίμπλημι (pimplēmi)
To fill, make full.
The verb behind “was furnished” means “was filled”; the verse pictures the wedding hall full of people reclining there. The focus shifts from what has been arranged in the room to the people who now fill it.
ALSO GROWS
plēthos: multitude or crowd
πλῆθος
A multitude is a fullness made visible as many gathered together.
plēthynō: increase or multiply
πληθύνω
The same root extends filling into increase, showing fullness as a growing abundance.
THE PATTERN
The invitation widens beyond status or self-sufficiency, gathering people encountered across divisions.
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.And the servant came and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the broad streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the emptied, and the maimed, and the lame, and the blind.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face. But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.THE THREAD
And not for that nation only, but that he would also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.John uses the same Greek verb, συνάγω (synagō), “to bring together,” as Matthew’s “gathered together.” Here it gathers scattered people into one; in Matthew, it brings the mixed guests into the wedding hall.
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