What Does Matthew 24:35 Mean?
Heaven and earth pass by, but my words do not pass by.
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
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.THE KEY
The Greek uses the same passing verb for heaven and earth, then emphatically says it cannot reach Jesus’ words.
THE MEANING
Even heaven and earth remain subject to passing, while Jesus’ words endure. The verse speaks now of a permanence that does not depend on what looks most permanent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is visible and immense must outlast what is spoken.
THE ROOT
λόγοι
logoi
GROWS FROM
λέγω
legō
To say, speak.
The words here are λόγοι (logoi), connected to the act of speaking. The same word-family appears in John’s “the Word,” letting these words be heard beside that larger claim without collapsing the two.
ALSO GROWS
legō: to say, speak
λέγω
This verb is the source of λόγος, keeping “word” connected to the act of saying.
logion: oracle, divine utterance
λόγιον
This related word names speech received as an oracle, showing how the word-family can carry more than ordinary conversation.
παρελεύσεται
pareleusetai
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
To come, go, arrive.
“pass by” in this verse is pareleusetai. Matthew uses the same verb in both clauses: creation passes, while its application to Jesus’ words is emphatically denied. The repeated verb sets the words against the same ending named for heaven and earth, then exempts them from it.
ALSO GROWS
erchomai: to come, go, arrive
ἔρχομαι
This is the base verb beneath the compound used for “pass away.”
parerchomai: to pass by, go away, pass away
παρέρχομαι
This is the compound Matthew uses for heaven and earth passing, and again for the passing that is denied of the words.
THE PATTERN
The word of God remains when the created order and its living forms pass away.
The grass dries, the flower withers, but the word of our God stands for the ages.For the ages, LORD, your word is set in the heavens.But the word of the Lord remains for the ages. And this is the word that was brought to you as good news.THE THREAD
In the beginning was the word, and the word was turned toward God, and the word was God.Matthew’s λόγοι (logoi), “words,” and John’s λόγος (logos), “Word,” belong to the same Greek word-family. John places the Word “in the beginning”; Matthew says the words remain when heaven and earth pass.
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