What Does Matthew 3:6 Mean?
And they were immersed by him in the river Jordan, speaking their shortcomings into the open.
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 were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.THE KEY
Immersion and confession are one movement here: what is missed comes into the open as people enter the water.
THE MEANING
What is missed is spoken openly as people enter the water. The verse holds immersion and acknowledgment together, with nothing in the scene requiring the misses to stay concealed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you have missed must remain hidden as you approach immersion.
THE ROOT
ἐξομολογούμενοι
exomologoumenoi
GROWS FROM
ἐξομολογέω (exomologeō), built on ὁμολογέω (homologeō)
To openly acknowledge or confess; the word carries the sense of bringing an acknowledgment out into speech.
“speaking their shortcomings into the open” in this verse is exomologoumenoi. The verse does not leave confession as an inward recognition: the people voice what they have missed while they are immersed. The spoken acknowledgment and the water occupy the same scene.
ALSO GROWS
homologeō: Acknowledge, confess
ὁμολογέω
This related verb appears in 1 John 1:9 for confessing sins.
exomologēsis: Open acknowledgment, confession
ἐξομολόγησις
The related noun preserves the expressed, spoken quality of the act.
ἁμαρτίας
hamartias
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss, err, or go wrong; hamartia names a missing or failure.
“shortcomings” in this verse is hamartias. The word translated “sins” carries the sense of misses that can be named. These are not left as a vague burden in the verse; they are spoken openly.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss, err, or do wrong
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb expresses the action behind the “missing” named here.
hamartōlos: One who misses; a sinner
ἁμαρτωλός
This related word links the act of missing with the person described through it.
ἐβαπτίζοντο
ebaptizonto
GROWS FROM
βαπτίζω (baptizō), related to βάπτω (baptō)
To immerse, plunge, or dip into water.
The Greek verb keeps the action concrete: they are immersed in the Jordan while confessing. The accompanying confession is part of this same moment in the water.
ALSO GROWS
baptō: Dip or plunge
βάπτω
This related verb keeps the water image grounded in the act of dipping.
baptisma: Immersion; baptism
βάπτισμα
The related noun names the immersion that takes place alongside their confession.
THE PATTERN
What has gone wrong is brought into the open in the movement toward forgiveness, healing, or changed action.
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.And many who had trusted came, and spoke out in agreement, and laid their deeds open.Speak your stumbles into the open to one another, and pray over one another, that you may be made whole. The asking of an aligned one, working within, is very strong.THE THREAD
If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.Matthew’s “confessing” is from ἐξομολογέω (exomologeō), and John’s “confess” is ὁμολογέω (homologeō), from the same word family. John connects that acknowledgment with release and cleansing, extending what the spoken confession opens in Matthew.
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