What Does Matthew 25:13 Mean?
Stay awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes.
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
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.THE KEY
The unknown hour does not hide the point of the verse; it makes watchfulness a way of being awake now.
THE MEANING
The time of the coming remains unknown, while watchfulness is present and possible. The verse turns attention from calculating when to the state of being awake now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that readiness can wait until the timing is known.
THE ROOT
γρηγορεῖτε
grēgoreite
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
To awaken or raise; γρηγορέω is linked to the perfect form ἐγρήγορα, “I am awake.”
“Stay awake” in this verse is grēgoreite. The Greek word for watching carries the sense of staying awake. Its root links watchfulness with awakening: the verse places the reader in a state of alertness even while the time remains hidden.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: Awaken, raise
ἐγείρω
This related verb makes the waking sense inside “watch” audible.
egersis: Rising, resurrection
ἔγερσις
This noun from the same word family extends the image of awakening into rising.
THE PATTERN
When the time of a coming remains hidden, the text places attention on watchfulness in the present.
Stay awake therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house comes, in the evening, or at midnight, or at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning.So be ready also, for the Son of Man comes in an hour you do not suppose.Therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay awake and be sober.THE THREAD
Therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay awake and be sober.The Greek verb translated “watch” is from the same word family in both verses. Here it stands beside “not sleep,” making the waking image in Matthew’s command unmistakable.
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