What Does Matthew 22:22 Mean?
When they had heard these words, they marveled, and let him go, and went their way.
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
When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.THE KEY
They marvel at him, yet the word translated “left” also carries the sense “let go”, the same Greek word family used for releasing a debt.
THE MEANING
A truth can reach you, even astonish you, without becoming the direction you stay with. Wonder and departure can share the same moment; being moved is not yet remaining.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Feeling astonished does not, by itself, mean a truth has taken root or changed your direction.
THE ROOT
ἀφέντες
aphentes
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi; apo + hiēmi)
To send away, let go, or leave; ἀφέντες means “having left.”
“let go” in this verse is aphentes. The verb can describe leaving someone or letting something go. The same verb family names the release of debts elsewhere, so English words for departure and forgiveness conceal a shared language of release; here, they leave Jesus and go away.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, dismissal, remission.
ἄφεσις
This noun from the same word family names release, including the release of a debt or sin, often rendered “forgiveness” in English.
aphes: Let go, release; used for “forgive” when the object is a debt.
ἄφες
This form of the same verb appears in Matthew 6:12, linking departure and the release of debts through a shared word.
ἐθαύμασαν
ethaumasan
GROWS FROM
θαυμάζω
thaumazō
To marvel, be astonished, or wonder.
“marvelled” in this verse is ethaumasan. This word names astonishment, not allegiance. The sentence places it beside departure, showing that amazement can be intense without settling what comes next.
ALSO GROWS
thauma: A wonder; something astonishing.
θαῦμα
The noun names what evokes wonder, without saying what a person does afterward.
thaumastos: Wondrous, marvelous.
θαυμαστός
This related word describes what inspires wonder; the shared word family still says nothing by itself about whether someone stays or trusts.
THE PATTERN
Encountering a sign or startling truth does not by itself settle whether a person trusts or remains with what was seen.
And the LORD said to Moses, How long will this people spurn me? How long will they not lean their weight on me, for all the signs I have done in their midst?And he marveled at their not leaning their full weight on him. And he went around the villages, teaching.But though he had done so many signs before them, they did not lean their weight on him.THE THREAD
And release our debts, as we also release our debtors.The word translated “forgive” is ἄφες (aphes), from ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, “let go, release, leave”), the same verb family as “left” here. The shared word does not make their departure an act of forgiveness; it shows how the same language of release can describe leaving someone or releasing a debt.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us