What Does Matthew 7:13 Mean?
Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and roomy is the way that leads to perishing, and many are those who go in through it.
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
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:THE KEY
Here, spaciousness measures how many can enter, not how much life the road holds.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you now with a warning: a broad, crowded way can still carry its travelers toward loss. The narrow entrance marks a constrained passage, while the danger lies in where the broad road leads. A route’s accessibility and popularity do not prove it is life-giving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a way chosen by many must be safe or good.
THE ROOT
ἀπώλεια
apōleia
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), stem ἀπολλυ-
To lose, perish, or come to ruin.
“perishing” in this verse is apōleia. The word translated “destruction” belongs to the same Greek word-family as “lose” and “lost.” That makes the destination more than a destructive event: it is also a state of loss, a way of becoming lost.
ALSO GROWS
apollymi: To lose, perish, or destroy.
ἀπόλλυμι
This verb shares the root family of apōleia and makes the sense of loss audible beneath “destruction.”
apolōlos: Lost; perished.
ἀπολωλός
This form describes the lost sheep in Luke 15:4, connecting the road’s destination with the condition of being lost.
στενῆς
stenēs
GROWS FROM
στεν-
sten-
Narrow, tight, or constricted.
“narrow” in this verse is stenēs. The narrowness belongs to the entrance, while the broad road is the one explicitly leading to loss. Greek words from the same στεν- family can describe confinement and the groaning it brings, so the image carries a felt sense of constriction without making narrowness itself the destination.
ALSO GROWS
stenos: Narrow or constricted.
στενός
This is the base adjective behind the form translated “strait,” keeping the image of a constrained entrance in view.
stenochōria: Confinement, distress, or a narrow place.
στενοχωρία
The related word links narrowness with the pressure of being hemmed in, giving the gate’s image a physical edge.
stenazō: To groan or sigh.
στενάζω
This related verb gives voice to pressure or distress, echoing the constricted feel of the στεν- family.
THE PATTERN
A way is known by where it carries its traveler, not by how wide or popular it appears.
There is a way straight before a man, but its latter end is the ways of death.For the LORD perceives the way of the aligned, but the way of the wicked loses its way.For narrow is the gate, and pressed in is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it.THE THREAD
What man among you, holding a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the one that has lost its way until he finds it?The noun translated “destruction” is ἀπώλεια (apōleia), in the word-family of the verb translated “lose” in Jesus’ lost-sheep parable. Matthew’s warning holds destruction and being lost in the same word-family; Luke adds the image of what is lost being sought until it is found.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us