What Does Matthew 5:17 Mean?
Do not think that I came to loosen the instruction or the prophets. I came not to loosen, but to fill.
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
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.THE KEY
“Fulfil” carries the image of filling to fullness: the instruction reaches its full expression.
THE MEANING
The instruction and the prophets remain present to you as a whole whose fullness is revealed in Jesus. Fulfilment means bringing them to their full measure, so what they point toward takes form in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief this verse undoes is that Jesus’ coming makes the instruction and prophetic word disposable.
THE ROOT
πληρῶσαι
plērōsai
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
fill; fullness
The verb πληρῶσαι (plērōsai, to fill or bring to fullness) gives fulfil the sense of filling something to its full measure. The instruction is presented as reaching its full expression, not as an emptied or discarded word.
ALSO GROWS
plērēs: full, complete
πλήρης
This adjective shares the fullness stem and brings out the sense of fulfilment as completeness.
plērōma: fullness, full measure
πλήρωμα
Romans 13:10 uses this word family when it calls love the fulfilling of the instruction, showing fullness taking form in life.
καταλῦσαι
katalysai
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
loosen, untie, release
“loosen” in this verse is katalysai. The verb καταλῦσαι (katalysai, to dismantle or tear down) carries the image of loosening a structure down. Its base also appears in a verb for release, sharpening the verse’s distinction between tearing the instruction down and bringing it to fullness.
ALSO GROWS
katalyō: dismantle, tear down
καταλύω
This is the verb in the verse; its image makes the rejected action concrete as taking a structure apart.
apolyō: release, send away
ἀπολύω
This verb shares the λύω (lyō, loosen or release) base, linking loosening with letting something go.
THE PATTERN
Instruction reaches its fullness when its intended life takes form.
You shall not avenge, nor hold a grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.For the whole instruction has been filled in one word, which says, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'THE THREAD
Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.The Greek word family for fullness connects Matthew’s “fulfil” with Romans’ “fulfilling.” Romans makes that fullness visible as love taking form toward a neighbor.
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