What Does Matthew 25:45 Mean?
Then he answers them, saying, Truly, I say to you, Whatever you did not do to one of the least of these, you did not do it 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
Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.THE KEY
This verse names one withheld act twice: first toward the least, then toward Jesus.
THE MEANING
Your response to the least is your response to Jesus. The same act is named toward both, so neglect is not separate from your relationship with him. The person treated as least is fully present in that relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that you can honor Jesus while treating the least as irrelevant to him.
THE ROOT
ἐποιήσατε
epoiēsate
GROWS FROM
ποιέω, stem ποιε- (poieō, poie-)
To do, make, or bring about.
The same Greek verb appears in both halves: you did not do it to the least; you did not do it to Jesus. The repeated verb makes these one withheld act with two named recipients.
ALSO GROWS
poiētēs: A doer or maker.
ποιητής
This related word keeps the focus on what a response enacts.
poiēma: A thing made or workmanship.
ποίημα
The same word family can name what is brought about, giving the action a concrete result.
ἐλαχίστων
elachistōn
GROWS FROM
ἐλαχ- / ἐλαχιστ- (elach- / elachist-)
Small or little; in the superlative, smallest or least.
“least” in this verse is elachistōn. The Greek word places the person at the smallest point on a scale of significance. The sentence gives that person full relational weight by saying that what is withheld from them is withheld from Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
elachys: Small or little.
ἐλαχύς
This base adjective carries the sense that the superlative “least” intensifies.
elachistoteros: Less than the least; “less than the least of all saints” in Ephesians 3:8.
ἐλαχιστότερος
This intensified form shows the same word family placing someone even lower on the scale.
THE PATTERN
A response to a person in need reaches beyond that person to the one identified with them.
Whoever takes you in takes me in, and whoever takes me in takes in the one who sent me.Whoever lends to the LORD shows favor to the emptied one, and what his hands have done, he makes whole for him.And one of you says to them, Go in wholeness, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them what the body needs. What is the profit?THE THREAD
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.The Greek verb for “have done” here is the same verb rendered “did” in verse 45. Verse 40 names the act given to the least as given to Jesus; verse 45 names the withheld act as withheld from him.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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