What Does Matthew 4:24 Mean?
And the sound of him went out through all Syria, and they carried to him all who were ill, held by many-colored sicknesses and torments, and those gripped by demons, and those struck by the moon, and those who were paralyzed, and he healed 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 his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.THE KEY
The people are described as pressed by many forms of affliction, and the closing verb gathers them all into care: he heals them.
THE MEANING
The verse names diseases, torments, possession with devils, lunacy, and paralysis, then says he heals them. The many forms of suffering do not make the people unreachable; healing meets them amid what presses on them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that suffering too strange, severe, or varied to be understood is beyond reach: every condition named here is included in the healing.
THE ROOT
ἐθεράπευσεν
etherapeusen
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
Greek lexical stem
To attend to, care for, or heal.
“healed” in this verse is etherapeusen. The verb can mean to attend or care for as well as to heal. Its place at the end gathers every condition named before it into one response of direct care.
ALSO GROWS
therapeia: Care, service, or healing.
θεραπεία
It keeps healing connected to care directed toward someone.
therapeutēs: An attendant or one who serves.
θεραπευτής
This related word echoes the attending and serving carried within the verb translated “healed.”
συνεχομένους
synechomenous
GROWS FROM
συνεχ- (from συνέχω, synechō)
To hold, press, or constrain.
“held by” in this verse is synechomenous. The phrase translated “taken with” describes people as held or pressed by what afflicts them. The final verb moves the scene from that pressure into attending care.
ALSO GROWS
synechō: To hold together, press, or constrain.
συνέχω
This is the verb behind the description of people held by their afflictions.
synochē: Distress or pressure.
συνοχή
The related noun carries the same sense of being pressed, making visible the force implied by “taken with.”
THE PATTERN
Affliction is met at the point where it presses people, and care reaches across its many forms.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.When evening had come, they brought to him many held by demons; and he cast out the breaths with a word, and healed all who were sick.How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with him.THE THREAD
And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.The same Greek verb for healing appears here and in Matthew 4:24. In both verses, its sense of attending and caring gives the healing a personal closeness: the action reaches the person who is suffering.
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