What Does Matthew 5:28 Mean?
But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to crave her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
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
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.THE KEY
The Greek verb behind “lust” is also used for “covet,” placing adultery in desire that lays claim to another before any outward act.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now wherever a gaze is deliberately used to feed desire: the inward breach is already present before outward contact. It names the difference between seeing someone and looking with the aim of desiring her.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that adultery begins only with physical contact; Jesus locates it earlier, in the gaze that consents to desire.
THE ROOT
ἐπιθυμῆσαι
epithymēsai
GROWS FROM
ἐπιθυμ-
epithym-
To set desire upon; to long for or covet.
“crave” in this verse is epithymēsai. The infinitive ἐπιθυμῆσαι (epithymēsai, “to desire or covet”) describes the aim of the look, not mere seeing. Its word family also appears in the Greek text of the commandment against coveting a neighbor’s wife, joining inward desire to the adultery named here.
ALSO GROWS
epithymeō: The verb form: to desire, long for, or covet.
ἐπιθυμέω
The Greek text of Exodus 20:17 uses this verb for “covet,” including the neighbor’s wife; Matthew uses the same word family for the gaze aimed at desire.
epithymia: The noun form: desire, longing, or coveting.
ἐπιθυμία
James 1:14 uses this noun for desire that draws and entices, showing how the inward pull can precede an outward act.
THE PATTERN
The inward act takes shape when attention is deliberately bent toward desire.
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a craving for the eyes, and a tree to be desired for making one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.I cut a covenant with my eyes; why then should I gaze upon a maiden?But each one is tested by his own craving, dragged out and lured.THE THREAD
You shall not desire your neighbor's house. You shall not desire your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.The Greek text of Exodus uses ἐπιθυμέω (epithymeō, “to desire or covet”) for “covet,” including the neighbor’s wife; Matthew uses the same word family for the gaze aimed at desire. The shared wording carries the commandment’s boundary into the heart: the coveting named there is the inward adultery named here.
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