What Does Matthew 22:35 Mean?
Then one of them, who was an expert in the instruction, asked him a question, testing him, and 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
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,THE KEY
The verse names the question’s purpose before its content: it is a test, not an open inquiry.
THE MEANING
The question comes from someone identified with instruction, yet the verse names his aim as testing Yeshua. Before the question is even stated, its pressure is clear: this exchange is framed as a trial.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that a question is sincere simply because it sounds like inquiry; its purpose may be to test rather than understand.
THE ROOT
πειράζων
peirazōn
GROWS FROM
πειρ-
peir-
To attempt or make trial of.
The Greek stem behind “tempting” also appears in words for testing and trial. The shared root holds these shades together; the surrounding purpose shows whether a test is a trap or another kind of proving.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: To test, try, or tempt.
πειράζω
This is the verb’s base form and makes clear that the encounter is being put to trial.
peirasmos: A trial, testing, or temptation.
πειρασμός
The related noun names the trial itself, showing that the verse describes a deliberate test rather than a neutral question.
νομικός
nomikos
GROWS FROM
νόμος
nomos
Instruction, established order, or law.
“expert in the instruction” in this verse is nomikos. The title grows from the word for instruction: this is a person identified with that body of teaching. The verse places that identity beside a question whose stated purpose is to test.
ALSO GROWS
nomos: Instruction, order, or law.
νόμος
This is the word at the center of the lawyer’s title, linking him to instruction.
nomothetēs: A lawgiver, one who establishes instruction or law.
νομοθέτης
The same nomos seed appears in a word for one who sets instruction, showing the reach of the root beneath this title.
THE PATTERN
Testing turns an encounter into a trial whose purpose shapes what the test reveals.
Then Jesus was led up by the breath into the wilderness to be tested by the Slanderer.And this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.For we do not have a high priest who cannot suffer alongside our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every way as we are, apart from falling short.THE THREAD
And this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.John 6:6 uses the same Greek verb, peirazō, rendered here as “tempting” and there as “prove.” The shared root holds both encounters as tests; their surrounding purpose distinguishes an attempt to entrap from a test that brings a response into view.
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