What Does Matthew 25:40 Mean?
And the King answers and says to them, Truly, I say to you, Whatever you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did to me.
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 the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.THE KEY
The King says the least are his kin, so what reaches them reaches him.
THE MEANING
Your treatment of the least reaches the King himself. Those who seem to count least are named as his own family, so their place in the verse does not depend on their rank or usefulness. The King is present in the way they are met.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that closeness to the King is measured by a person’s rank or visibility: the verse locates him with the least of his kin.
THE ROOT
ἀδελφῶν
adelphōn
GROWS FROM
ἀδελφ-
adelph-
Sibling or kin; ἀδελφός is traditionally traced to the idea of being from the same womb.
The Greek word family also names a sister and a whole kinship group. “My brethren” makes the least his family; the verse presents their treatment as personal to the King.
ALSO GROWS
adelphē: sister
ἀδελφή
The same family word names a sister, showing the kinship extends beyond the English masculine form “brethren.”
adelphotēs: brotherhood, kinship
ἀδελφότης
This word gathers siblings into a shared kinship, echoing the King’s claim that the least are his own.
ἐλαχίστων
elachistōn
GROWS FROM
ἐλαχ-
elach-
Small or slight; the word family forms degrees of smallness, with ἐλάχιστος meaning “least.”
The word points to those at the bottom of the scale, not simply to people who are easy to notice or honor. The King places his own name beside those who seem to count least.
ALSO GROWS
elachys: small, slight
ἐλαχύς
This related adjective carries the basic sense of smallness from which the passage’s ranking word grows.
elachiōn: smaller, lesser
ἐλαχίων
The comparative shows the same word family measuring degrees of smallness, sharpening the force of “the least.”
THE PATTERN
How a person receives or treats another reaches the God to whom that person belongs.
Whoever lends to the LORD shows favor to the emptied one, and what his hands have done, he makes whole for him.Whoever takes you in takes me in, and whoever takes me in takes in the one who sent me.If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has perceived, cannot love God, whom he has not perceived.THE THREAD
For both the one who sets apart and those who are set apart are all from one. For this reason he does not blush to call them brothers.The Greek word behind “brethren” belongs to the same family in both verses. Hebrews says those called brethren are “all of one,” opening the kinship already present in the King’s words.
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