What Does Matthew 23:20 Mean?
Whoever therefore swears by the altar, swears by it and by all that is above it.
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
Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.THE KEY
An oath by the altar reaches the altar and everything it bears, because the offering-place cannot be separated from its offerings.
THE MEANING
The verse binds the altar and everything upon it together when you swear by it. What rests on the altar belongs to the full reach of the oath.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that an altar can be invoked while the things resting on it are excluded from the oath.
THE ROOT
θυσιαστήριον
thysiastērion
GROWS FROM
θύω
thyō
To sacrifice or offer.
The Greek word for altar is built from the language of sacrifice: it is an offering-place. That root connection illuminates why the verse joins the altar with everything upon it as one whole.
ALSO GROWS
thysia: A sacrifice or offering.
θυσία
This related word names what is placed on the altar, showing that offering and offering-place share a root.
thysiazō: To offer something as a sacrifice.
θυσιάζω
The verb names the act the altar is made for, connecting the place, the offering, and the act of offering.
THE PATTERN
A sacred reference carries the whole reality joined to it, so its parts cannot be separated to narrow what the reference binds.
For seven days you cover the altar, and set it apart. It is an altar most set apart. Whatever touches the altar is set apart.And whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by the one who settles in it.And whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who sits on it.THE THREAD
And another messenger comes and stands at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense is given to him, so that he might give it with the prayers of all the set-apart ones upon the golden altar before the face of the throne.The word translated “altar” is the same Greek word, θυσιαστήριον (thysiastērion), in both verses. Revelation places incense and prayers at the altar, opening the picture of the altar as a place where what is brought to it belongs together.
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