What Does Matthew 8:14 Mean?
And when Jesus came into Peter's house, he perceived his mother-in-law lying down and burning.
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
And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.THE KEY
The Greek names fever from πῦρ (pyr, “fire”) and describes her as laid down by a form of βάλλω (ballō, “to cast”), holding burning heat and bodily helplessness in the same scene where Jesus sees her.
THE MEANING
When illness lays you low, you remain more than the symptom. Jesus sees the woman while the fever still burns, and the verse holds her vulnerability in view before the healing arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being laid low makes you invisible until you are well again.
THE ROOT
πυρέσσουσαν
pyressousan
GROWS FROM
πυρ-
pyr-
Fire, burning heat.
English names a condition; the Greek form keeps the fire image audible. Fever is a burning state in the scene, but Jesus sees the woman within it rather than only the heat.
ALSO GROWS
pyr: Fire.
πῦρ
This is the seed of the fever word, making the body’s heat sound like fire.
pyretos: Fever.
πυρετός
The same fire family names the fever that leaves her in the next verse.
βεβλημένην
beblēmenēn
GROWS FROM
βαλλ-
ball-
Throw, cast, or lay down.
The perfect passive form presents her as having been laid down and remaining there. Its verb also carries the sense of casting, giving the posture a forceful edge while leaving the agent unstated.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: Throw, cast, or lay down.
βάλλω
The Greek form translated “laid” comes from this verb, so the posture carries its casting shade.
bolē: A throw or casting.
βολή
This related noun preserves the same casting action, giving the word family a sharper physical image than “laid” alone.
THE PATTERN
Being seen in distress is the first movement toward restoration.
And she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You are El Roi, the God who sees me. For she said, Have I also here looked after the one who sees me?I have seen his ways, and I will heal him. I will lead him, and I will return comforts to him and to those who mourn for him.And he came and took her by the hand, and raised her up, and straightway the burning released her, and she served them.THE THREAD
And he touched her hand, and the fever let her go; and she rose and served them.The Greek word πυρετός (pyretos, “fever”) in the next verse belongs to the same πυρ- (pyr-, “fire”) family as the fever word here. The fire that has laid her down leaves, and she rises.
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