What Does Matthew 4:21 Mean?
And stepping forward from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.
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 going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.THE KEY
The word for “mending” also describes restoring a person and preparing someone for a task, so the call meets them in the middle of repair.
THE MEANING
The summons arrives while your hands are occupied with unfinished work; it does not wait for the nets to be mended. Repair and calling share the same moment, with ordinary work as the setting where a new direction begins.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You do not have to finish every repair before a new calling can reach you.
THE ROOT
καταρτίζοντας
katartizontas
GROWS FROM
καταρτίζω
To fit into order, restore, or make ready.
The word translated “mending” also describes restoring a person and preparing someone for a task. Repair and readiness belong to one word family, so the call meets them while their hands are still fitting torn things back into use.
ALSO GROWS
restore: To restore someone who has been overtaken in a fault.
The same Greek verb family carries the sense of mending from nets to a person.
make perfect: To make complete or equip someone for good work.
Mending and preparation share the idea of fitting something for its purpose.
THE PATTERN
A summons can arrive in the midst of ordinary work, before the work is finished.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.So he walked from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah crossed over to him, and threw his mantle upon him.And as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and followed him.THE THREAD
Brothers, even if a person is caught in a stumble, you who are of the breath, mend such a one in the breath of gentleness, watching yourself, lest you also be tested.“Restore” is from the same Greek verb family as “mending” in this verse. The word carries the repair of a net into the restoration of a person.
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