What Does Matthew 5:27 Mean?
You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery.
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
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:THE KEY
The command names a breach of fidelity, and the next verse reveals that its reach extends into the heart.
THE MEANING
This boundary speaks into the life you are living now: fidelity concerns a bond, not merely what others can see. The words carry a relationship inside them, and Jesus’ next sentence brings their reach into the heart.
THE ROOT
μοιχεύσεις
moicheuseis
GROWS FROM
μοιχ- (from μοιχεύω, moicheuō)
to commit adultery; to violate the marital bond
“commit adultery” in this verse is moicheuseis. The Greek word-family names both the act and the people who commit it, keeping the relationship inside the word. English can make adultery sound like an isolated category; the shared stem holds the betrayer and the breach together.
ALSO GROWS
moichos: adulterer
μοιχός
The same stem names the person who commits the breach, not only the act.
moichalis: adulteress
μοιχαλίς
The word-family keeps both people and the violated bond in view.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names betrayal as a breach of relationship whose reach extends from outward conduct into inward allegiance.
You shall not commit adultery.But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to crave her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.You adulterers and adulteresses, have you not seen that the friendship of the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore desires to be a friend of the world stands as an enemy of God.THE THREAD
But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to crave her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.The same Greek verb for adultery carries from the command into Jesus’ next sentence. There, the breach is shown taking shape in the heart before it becomes an outward act.
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