What Does Matthew 24:1 Mean?
Jesus went out from the temple and walked away, and his disciples came near to point out to him the buildings of the temple.
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 Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.THE KEY
The disciples point to the temple’s buildings at the very moment Jesus is moving away from them.
THE MEANING
Your attention is drawn to the temple’s impressive buildings as the one the disciples follow moves away. The scene places what is built beside a living presence in motion, showing how easily the visible can hold your gaze. The buildings remain, but they are not the whole meaning of the moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A grand religious structure must be where the most important presence is fixed. Here, Jesus is already moving away from it.
THE ROOT
ἐξελθών
exelthōn
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
érchomai
to come or go
“went out” in this verse is exelthōn. The Greek form ἐξελθών comes from ἐξέρχομαι, built from ἐξ- (“out”) and the ἔρχομαι family (“come, go”); its aorist stem shifts to ἐλθ-. The movement is explicitly outward: the disciples’ eyes turn to the structures as Jesus goes out from the temple precinct.
ALSO GROWS
érchomai: come, go
ἔρχομαι
The shared verb family gives the movement in this scene its basic sense of coming and going.
exérchomai: go out, depart
ἐξέρχομαι
This is the verb behind “went out,” with ἐξ- making the outward movement explicit.
eisérchomai: enter, go in
εἰσέρχομαι
Its contrast with ἐξέρχομαι makes the direction in the verse stand out: Jesus goes out while the disciples come to him.
ἱεροῦ
hierou
GROWS FROM
ἱερ-
hier-
sacred, set apart
The Greek uses ἱερόν for the temple precinct, then names the structures within it with a separate word, οἰκοδομάς. The wording distinguishes the consecrated place from the built fabric the disciples point out.
ALSO GROWS
hierón: temple precinct, sacred place
ἱερόν
This is the term used for the temple from which Jesus departs.
hiereús: priest
ἱερεύς
The related word names one associated with the sacred precinct, showing the family’s reach from place to role.
οἰκοδομάς
oikodomás
GROWS FROM
οἰκοδομ-
oikodom-
building, construction
This word belongs to the same Greek family as “build” and “build up.” The disciples point to constructed buildings, while the same word family can also describe something being built up, a connection the English noun alone does not reveal.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomē: building, construction; building up
οἰκοδομή
This noun shares the family and carries both the physical sense of a structure and the figurative sense of building up.
oikodomeō: build, build up
οἰκοδομέω
The verb makes explicit the action behind the buildings the disciples show Jesus.
oikodomos: builder
οἰκοδόμος
This related noun names the one who builds, completing the family around the structures in view.
THE PATTERN
Visible religious structures can hold the gaze, but they do not contain the presence or life they point toward.
Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here is let go upon another stone that is not loosened.Yet the Highest does not settle in what is made by hands, as the prophet says.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
Look, your house is left to you, empty.Matthew 23:38 describes the house as left desolate; here, Jesus moves out from the temple precinct while the disciples point to its buildings. Read together, the departure and the house left behind become one image of a sacred structure no longer holding the scene’s center.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us