What Does Matthew 7:5 Mean?
You actor, first throw the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see through to throw the splinter out of your brother's eye.
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
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.THE KEY
The same act that clears another’s sight begins with removing what obstructs your own.
THE MEANING
The beam in your own eye obstructs your clear sight of another person’s mote. Clarity comes after you remove your own obstruction; then the same act of casting out reaches your brother’s eye.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“I can see another person’s fault clearly while ignoring what obstructs my own sight.”
THE ROOT
ἔκβαλε
ekbale
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw, cast, or put something into motion.
“throw out” in this verse is ekbale. The same Greek verb is used for the beam and the mote: both are cast out, though they differ in scale. Clear sight for the second act follows the first removal.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: Throw or cast.
βάλλω
This is the base verb behind both acts of removal in the verse.
ekballō: Throw out or drive out.
ἐκβάλλω
It names the act applied first to the beam and then to the mote.
apoballō: Throw away or cast off.
ἀποβάλλω
It shows the same root carrying the sense of letting something go.
διαβλέψεις
diablepseis
GROWS FROM
βλέπω
blepō
To see or look.
“see through” in this verse is diablepseis. The verse uses διαβλέπω (diablepō), seeing distinctly or clearly, for what becomes possible after the beam is removed. Its base βλέπω (blepō) also appears in words for looking directly and for looking up or seeing again, tying clear perception to the passage’s image of sight restored.
ALSO GROWS
emblepō: Look at or gaze upon.
ἐμβλέπω
It carries the base sense of seeing directed toward something.
anablepō: Look up; see again or recover sight.
ἀναβλέπω
It echoes the movement from obstructed vision toward seeing.
THE PATTERN
Seeing and restoring another clearly begins with turning attention toward what is within yourself.
Probe me, O God, and perceive my heart; test me, and perceive my burning thoughts.And when they stayed on asking him, he straightened up and said to them, The one among you who has not missed the mark, let him first throw a stone at her.Brothers, even if a person is caught in a stumble, you who are of the breath, mend such a one in the breath of gentleness, watching yourself, lest you also be tested.THE THREAD
And Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see might see, and that those who see might become blind.John uses the same βλέπω (blepō, see) root that appears in διαβλέπω (diablepō, see clearly) here. Together the verses expose a paradox of sight: believing you see does not guarantee clear perception.
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