What Does Matthew 4:12 Mean?
Now when Jesus heard that John was handed over into prison, he withdrew into Galilee.
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
Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;THE KEY
John is handed over, yet Jesus moves toward Galilee: confinement becomes the point from which the message changes ground.
THE MEANING
A voice is handed over to confinement, and Jesus moves into Galilee; imprisonment and movement occupy the same moment. The verse shows that one voice being confined does not make the message motionless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that locking away a voice means its message has ended.
THE ROOT
παρεδόθη
paredothē
GROWS FROM
δίδω-
didō-
Give; place something into another’s hands.
The Greek says John was handed over, making the act of surrender visible beneath the English phrase about prison. That handover is immediately followed by Jesus’s movement into Galilee: one person is confined as the message moves elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: give
δίδωμι
The basic verb exposes the act beneath “handed over”: John is given into another’s power.
paradidōmi: hand over, deliver up
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used of John here; it names the transfer into custody.
paradosis: tradition; what is handed down
παράδοσις
The same word family can describe what passes from one hand to another, echoing how a message can continue beyond the confinement of one messenger.
ἀνεχώρησεν
anechōrēsen
GROWS FROM
χωρ-
chōr-
Space or region; the verb-family can carry the sense of going, making room, or withdrawing.
“withdrew” in this verse is anechōrēsen. The Greek verb can mean withdraw or retire, giving “departed” the shade of a purposeful withdrawal. Its destination, Galilee, makes the movement a new direction rather than an ending.
ALSO GROWS
chōreō: go, proceed; make room
χωρέω
This verb-family ties departure to movement through space, not merely to leaving something behind.
chōra: region, territory
χώρα
The related word for a region brings the verse’s destination into view: Jesus’s withdrawal leads into another place.
anachōreō: withdraw, retire
ἀναχωρέω
This is the verb behind “departed,” framing the move into Galilee as a withdrawal with a destination.
THE PATTERN
When one witness is silenced or scattered, the word continues by another route.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his nature. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.So those who were scattered passed through every place, bringing the good news of the word.In this I bear ill, even unto bonds, as one who works ill; but the word of God is not bound.THE THREAD
When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew from there by boat to a wilderness place privately, and when the crowds heard, they followed him on their feet from the cities.The same verb ἀναχωρέω (anachōreō, withdraw) appears in both verses, and each pairs hearing news with a change of place. Matthew repeats the pattern: what Jesus hears is followed by withdrawal.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us