What Does Matthew 4:14 Mean?

So that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be filled, saying,

Matthew 4:14 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

THE KEY

The saying reaches its fullness as it takes shape in what is happening now.

THE MEANING

The words spoken through Isaiah are coming to fullness in the scene now unfolding. What was spoken is taking shape before you.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a spoken word stays separate from reality gives way here: the saying reaches visible fullness.

THE ROOT

πληρωθῇ

plērōthē

GROWS FROM

πληρ

plēr-: full, fullness; to fill

The saying reaches fullness in the scene now unfolding. Fulfillment carries the image of a spoken word filled out in lived reality.

ALSO GROWS

plēroō: to fill, make full, bring to completion

πληρόω

This is the verb form behind “fulfilled,” holding the sense of bringing something to fullness.

plērōma: fullness, that which fills

πλήρωμα

This related word makes visible the shared image of fullness carried by the verse’s verb.

plērēs: full, complete

πλήρης

This adjective belongs to the same consonantal family and shows the state toward which the saying moves.

יְשַׁעְיָהוּ

Yəšaʿyāhū

GROWS FROM

ישע

y-š-ʿ (yashaʿ): deliver, bring out of constriction

Isaiah’s name carries the sense “YHWH delivers.” The verse joins that name to a spoken saying coming to fullness.

ALSO GROWS

yashaʿ: to deliver, bring out

יָשַׁע

This verb carries the root meaning held within Isaiah’s name.

yeshuah: deliverance

יְשׁוּעָה

This noun shows the root’s movement expressed as deliverance itself.

moshiaʿ: deliverer

מוֹשִׁיעַ

This related form names the one who brings deliverance.

THE PATTERN

A spoken word reaches fullness when it takes shape in the present.

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:11 · SDVThe word that goes forth accomplishes what it was sent to do, taking shape in the world.

And he began to say to them, Today this writing has been filled in your ears.

Luke 4:21 · SDVThe scripture reaches fullness in the very moment it is heard.

And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.

John 1:14 · SDVThe Word takes embodied form and dwells among those who behold it.

THE THREAD

Do not think that I came to loosen the instruction or the prophets. I came not to loosen, but to fill.

Matthew 5:17 · SDV

Matthew 5:17 uses the same Greek verb-family, ⁨πληρόω⁩ (plēroō, to fill or bring to fullness). Matthew 4:14 names one saying reaching fullness; here the same pattern opens across the Law and the Prophets.

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