What Does Matthew 22:20 Mean?
And he said to them, Whose is this image and this writing upon it?
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 he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?THE KEY
The image and writing are a paired signature: one shows whose likeness the coin carries, the other names the claim attached to it.
THE MEANING
The image shows the likeness being carried, while the inscription names the claim written over it. The verse holds appearance and written name together: what something resembles and what is written on it disclose whose authority it represents.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that a visible mark is only decoration: likeness and inscription can both make a claim of belonging legible.
THE ROOT
εἰκών
eikōn
GROWS FROM
εἰκ-
eik-
Resemble; be like.
“image” in this verse is eikōn. The Greek word carries the sense of likeness, not just a picture. The coin presents a recognizable likeness, so the question asks whose likeness it bears.
ALSO GROWS
eikazō: To liken, compare, or represent.
εἰκάζω
This branch makes the link between an image and the act of showing what something resembles.
eikasia: Likeness or representation.
εἰκασία
The image belongs to a family of words for resemblance and representation, not mere decoration.
ἐπιγραφή
epigraphē
GROWS FROM
γραφ-
graph-
Write; mark by writing.
“writing upon it” in this verse is epigraphē. The Greek term describes writing placed upon a surface. Beside the image, it makes the coin readable in two ways: by the likeness it bears and by the authority named in its inscription.
ALSO GROWS
graphō: To write or inscribe.
γράφω
The superscription is writing made visible on the coin.
epigraphō: To write upon; inscribe.
ἐπιγράφω
This compound names the act of putting words onto a surface, joining the written claim to the object itself.
graphē: Writing; a written text.
γραφή
The inscription is a readable text carried on the same surface as the image.
THE PATTERN
A likeness makes the source or pattern it reflects visible.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.Who is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.But we all, with uncovered faces, mirror the weight of the LORD, and are being reshaped into the same image, ever increasing in weight, even as from the breath of the LORD.THE THREAD
Who is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.Matthew uses εἰκών (eikōn, image or likeness) for the coin’s visible stamp; Colossians uses that same Greek word for the image of the invisible God. The shared word opens the coin’s question into a larger one: an image discloses the one whose likeness it bears.
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