What Does Matthew 26:73 Mean?
And after a little while those standing beside him came to Peter and said, In truth you also are one of them, for your speech gives you away.
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 after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.THE KEY
Peter is exposed not by a confession but by the sound of his speech, which makes his belonging audible.
THE MEANING
Speech carries belonging into the open, sometimes before a person chooses to name it. Peter’s voice makes him recognizable to those around him even as his denial tries to conceal him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that denial can fully conceal identity: a person’s way of speaking can still make them recognizable.
THE ROOT
δῆλόν
dēlon
GROWS FROM
δῆλος
dēlos
Clear, visible, evident.
“gives you away” in this verse is dēlon. The Greek phrase says Peter’s speech “makes you evident.” His speech does not merely betray a secret; it makes him recognizable. The word family carries the sense of bringing something into clarity.
ALSO GROWS
dēloō: Make clear, show, declare.
δηλόω
This verb names the act of making something plain, echoing how Peter’s speech brings his identity into view.
dēlōsis: Disclosure, clear indication.
δήλωσις
This related noun points to what makes something evident, the effect Peter’s listeners hear in his speech.
λαλιά
laliá
GROWS FROM
λαλέω
laleō
To speak, to utter words or sounds.
The word names speech as something heard, including its manner and sound. The same family appears in the verb “speaketh” in Matthew 12:34, where speech gives outward form to what fills the heart.
ALSO GROWS
laliá: Speech, manner of speaking.
λαλιά
This is the word used of Peter’s speech: the sound and manner of his words identify him.
laleō: To speak, utter.
λαλέω
Matthew 12:34 uses this verb for what the mouth speaks, linking utterance with what comes from within.
THE PATTERN
A voice or choice of words can expose a speaker’s identity or source even when appearance or claims conceal it.
And Jacob drew near to Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.Then they said to him, Say now Shibboleth. And he said, Sibboleth, for he could not steady his tongue to say it right. Then they took him and slaughtered him at the crossings of the Jordan, and forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell there at that time.You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.THE THREAD
You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.The word for Peter’s “speech” and the verb “speaketh” come from the same Greek family, λαλέω (laleō), “to speak.” In this verse the mouth speaks from the heart’s abundance; in Matthew 26:73, speech makes Peter recognizable to others.
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