What Does Matthew 22:46 Mean?
And no one was able to answer him a word, and from that day no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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 no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.THE KEY
The verse marks two different silences: first no one can answer, then no one dares to ask.
THE MEANING
Here, silence arrives in two movements: no one can answer him, and no one dares to ask again. The verse separates inability from fear, showing how a question can close the space for speech before it closes the space for inquiry. That distinction still appears when an unanswered truth makes the next question feel dangerous.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Silence always signals agreement or understanding. Here it can signal a failed answer and fear of reopening the question.
THE ROOT
ἴσχυσεν
ischysen
GROWS FROM
ἰσχυ-
ischy-
Be strong; have the strength or capacity to prevail.
The verb comes from ἰσχύω (ischyō, be strong or able), so “able” carries the force of strength: no one can prevail enough to produce a reply. The root family links capacity with might, making this a failure of response, not merely a quiet pause.
ALSO GROWS
ischys: strength, might
ἰσχύς
The noun makes the force behind “able” visible: the answer fails for lack of power to prevail.
ischyros: strong, powerful
ἰσχυρός
This adjective shares the same root and reinforces that the verse describes capacity, not permission.
ἐτόλμησεν
etolmēsen
GROWS FROM
τολμ-
tolm-
Dare or venture despite risk.
“dared” in this verse is etolmēsen. The verse does not say that people merely stop asking; its verb names a lack of daring. Their silence moves from inability to risk: first no answer can be formed, then another question is too daunting.
ALSO GROWS
tolma: boldness, daring
τόλμα
This noun names the quality missing when no one dares to ask again.
tolmēros: daring, audacious
τολμηρός
This adjective shares the root and shows the kind of courage the verse says is absent.
λόγον
logon
GROWS FROM
λεγ-/λογ- (leg-/log-)
Say or tell; what is said as a word, account, or reason.
English “a word” can sound like any utterance, but λόγος (logos, word or account) can also name a reasoned account. The verse says no one can give him even an account in reply, so the silence has intellectual weight as well as spoken absence.
ALSO GROWS
legō: say, tell
λέγω
This verb shares the root and links the noun for “word” to the act of speaking.
logizomai: reckon, count, account
λογίζομαι
This related form brings out the accounting sense: no one can make an account that answers him.
THE PATTERN
When an encounter exposes the limit of an available answer, speech can give way to silence.
And after this they no longer dared to ask him any question.Look, I am light; what shall I return to you? I have set my hand upon my mouth.And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say against it.THE THREAD
And after this they no longer dared to ask him any question.Matthew and Luke use the same verb, ἐπερωτάω (eperōtaō, to ask or question), for the questioning that stops. That shared root sharpens Matthew’s final movement: not only does an answer fail, but inquiry itself withdraws.
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