What Does Matthew 5:31 Mean?
It was said, Whoever sends away his wife, let him give her a writing of standing apart.
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
It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:THE KEY
“Put away” carries the sense of releasing or dismissing someone, while the writing makes that separation explicit.
THE MEANING
A rule can pair the dismissal of a wife with a written certificate. The verse keeps both acts in view: the document marks the separation, while the husband’s act of sending her away remains at its center.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύσῃ
apolysē
GROWS FROM
ἀπό (apo) + λύω (lyō)
ἀπό means away or off; λύω means loosen, untie, or release. Together, ἀπολύω means release or dismiss.
“sends away” in this verse is apolysē. The verb carries an image of releasing or dismissing someone away. The same λύω family can describe being loosed from a wife and unbinding someone from grave wrappings; here, that language names a husband ending the marital bond, with the writing making the separation explicit.
ALSO GROWS
lelusai: Released or loosed.
λέλυσαι
In 1 Corinthians 7:27, the same λύω family appears in the question, “Art thou loosed from a wife?” It uses release language for a marital bond.
lysate: Loosen or unbind.
λύσατε
In John 11:44, Jesus says, “Loose him, and let him go.” The same root describes the physical unbinding of Lazarus from his grave clothes.
THE PATTERN
The writing of separation appears alongside the act of sending a wife away, giving dismissal a public form.
When a man takes a wife and marries her, and if she finds no favor in his eyes, because he finds some nakedness in her, then he writes her a writ of cutting away, places it in her hand, and sends her out of his house.They said to him, Why then did Moses command to give a writing of divorce and to send her away?They said, Moses allowed a writing of divorce to be written, and to send her away.THE THREAD
They said to him, Why then did Moses command to give a writing of divorce and to send her away?The same Greek verb, ἀπολύω (apolýō, release or dismiss), appears in both verses. Its repetition keeps the act of sending her away audible beside the written certificate.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us