What Does Matthew 22:31 Mean?
But concerning the rising of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,
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
But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,THE KEY
Resurrection names the dead in relation to standing up.
THE MEANING
You are addressed with a question about resurrection: the dead are the ones who stand again. The verse says God’s words are spoken “unto you,” placing the reader inside the address.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that death removes a person from God’s address: resurrection is what God’s speech is speaking to you about.
THE ROOT
ἀνάστασις
anastasis
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand or set upright.
English can make resurrection sound like an abstract doctrine; ἀνάστασις (anastasis, standing up) carries the action of standing inside the noun. The verse names the dead in relation to rising.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: To rise or stand up.
ἀνίστημι
This verb makes the movement inside “resurrection” visible: what is down stands up.
anastasis: A rising, resurrection.
ἀνάστασις
The verse’s central word holds the act of standing within its name.
ῥηθέν
rhēthen
GROWS FROM
ῥέω
rheō
To speak or pour forth words.
This word-family keeps speech tied to utterance rather than a static record. Here, what is spoken is explicitly “unto you,” giving the reading the shape of a direct address.
ALSO GROWS
rhēma: A spoken word or utterance.
ῥῆμα
It keeps the verse’s “spoken” connected to words being voiced.
rhēsis: Speech or utterance.
ῥῆσις
It echoes the verse’s emphasis on God’s words being spoken to the reader.
THE PATTERN
God’s word addresses what is dead with a call into life.
Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.Truly, truly, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now it is, when the dead will hear and respond to the voice of the Son of God, and those who respond will live.In an instant, in the flick of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it will sound, and the dead will be awakened undecaying, and we will be made other.THE THREAD
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.The next verse supplies the words Matthew 22:31 says God has spoken: “I am the God...” Its present-tense “I am” grounds resurrection in God’s continuing relation to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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