What Does Matthew 22:41 Mean?
While the separated ones were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
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
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,THE KEY
The word translated “gathered together” pictures the Pharisees as brought into one shared scene where Jesus’ question can reach them together.
THE MEANING
When people are gathered, a question can make their shared understanding visible. Jesus faces the Pharisees as a gathered body, so what follows addresses them together. The moment moves from assembly toward disclosure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being gathered together does not mean a group has reached shared understanding.
THE ROOT
συναχθέντων
synachthentōn
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
to lead, bring
“gathered together” in this verse is synachthentōn. The Greek word combines συν- (“together”) with ἄγω (“bring, lead”): the Pharisees are described as having been brought together. English preserves the gathering but hides the movement into a shared scene where one question can address them all.
ALSO GROWS
synagō: gather, bring together
συνάγω
This is the verb behind the word in the verse; its passive form presents the Pharisees as brought together.
synagōgē: assembly, synagogue
συναγωγή
This noun grows from the same bring-together verb, naming an assembly by the people collected into it.
agōgē: leading, guidance, conduct
ἀγωγή
It carries the root’s sense of leading forward, showing the motion held inside the verse’s description of gathering.
THE PATTERN
Gathering brings people into a shared space where a word, question, or presence can address them together.
Assemble the people, the men, the women, and the little ones, and the sojourner within your gates, so that they may hear and respond, and so that they may learn, and be struck with awe of the LORD your God, and guard to do all the words of this instruction;And the sent ones and elders came together to perceive about this word.For where two or three are gathered together in my nature, there I am in the midst of them.THE THREAD
For where two or three are gathered together in my nature, there I am in the midst of them.Matthew 18:20 uses the same Greek verb family, συνάγω (synagō, gather together). Here, as in Matthew 22:41, gathering brings people into a shared scene; the later verse names that gathering as being in his nature, with his presence in their midst.
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