What Does Matthew 5:26 Mean?
Truly, I say to you, you shall by no means come out from there until you have given back the last copper coin.
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
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.THE KEY
The exit stays closed until the debt is rendered in full, down to the smallest coin.
THE MEANING
The reader meets a hard boundary: confinement ends only when the entire debt is paid, to the last coin. No part of the obligation vanishes because it is small or delayed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a small remaining debt no longer matters is undone: even the final coin still governs release.
THE ROOT
ἀποδῷς
apodōs
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι (didōmi), with ἀπό (apo-)
δίδωμι means to give or hand over; the compound ἀποδίδωμι means to render or repay.
“paid” in this verse is apodōs. English “pay” sounds like a transaction, but the Greek builds it from giving back: what leaves the debtor’s hand answers what is owed. The sentence carries that exchange to its final unit, tying release to a completed rendering.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: Give, grant, or hand over.
δίδωμι
The payment is an act of handing over what is due.
apodidōmi: Render, repay, or pay what is owed.
ἀποδίδωμι
The same giving takes the form of returning an obligation to its claimant.
ἐξέλθῃς
exelthēs
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι (erchomai), with ἐξ- (ex-, out)
ἔρχομαι means to come or go; with ἐξ-, the compound means to go out.
The word translated “come out” is a movement verb with “out” attached. That outward movement remains unavailable until the debt is fully rendered.
ALSO GROWS
erchomai: Come or go.
ἔρχομαι
This is the movement at the center of the word for leaving.
eiserchomai: Enter or go in.
εἰσέρχομαι
The same movement root can point inward; here the direction is outward, but the way out is conditioned on payment.
THE PATTERN
An account keeps its claim until it is paid in full or released.
And this is the word of the release. Every one whose hand has lent to his neighbor shall let it fall, and he shall not press it from his neighbor or from his brother, for it is called the LORD's release.And his lord swelled with anger and handed him over to the tormentors, until he should give back all that was owed to him.Therefore give back to all what is owed; the carried to whom the carrying is owed, the toll to whom the toll is owed, the trembling to whom trembling is owed, the weight to whom weight is owed.THE THREAD
And his lord swelled with anger and handed him over to the tormentors, until he should give back all that was owed to him.Both verses use the same Greek verb for paying what is owed, and both bind release from confinement to the account’s completion. Matthew 18 makes the link unmistakable: the whole debt remains in view until it is paid.
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