What Does Matthew 8:16 Mean?
When evening had come, they brought to him many held by demons; and he cast out the breaths with a word, and healed all who were sick.
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
When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:THE KEY
The word is not merely a report of healing; it is the means by which what grips is released and the sick are restored.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now with an image of complete reach: what grips and what sickens both meet the same authority. Release and care belong to one action here, and neither is treated as beyond reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what holds you and what weakens you require separate powers to meet them.
THE ROOT
λόγῳ
logō
GROWS FROM
λέγω (legō), with the related stem λεγ-/λογ-
Say, speak; logos is a saying, word, or account.
The Greek word for “word” carries the sense of a spoken account, not just a sound. Here, the logos is active: it sends out what holds and accompanies healing.
ALSO GROWS
legō: Say, speak.
λέγω
The family link keeps logos tied to the act of speaking that brings the change in this verse.
logizomai: Reckon, account.
λογίζομαι
This related word preserves the family’s sense of an account or reckoning, giving logos substance beyond a passing utterance.
τὰ πνεύματα
ta pneumata
GROWS FROM
πνέω (pneō), stem πνε-
Breathe, blow; the motion of air.
“breaths” in this verse is ta pneumata. The Greek word rendered “spirits” belongs to the same word family as breath and wind. The verse names what is cast out as pneumata, keeping the unseen within a word-family whose root meaning is breath or blowing.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: Breathe, blow.
πνέω
This verb makes the breath-and-wind root of pneuma visible beneath the verse’s word for spirits.
pnoē: Breath, blowing, or wind.
πνοή
This related noun shows how the same root names breath and moving air as well as the verse’s unseen forces.
ἐθεράπευσεν
etherapeusen
GROWS FROM
θεραπεύω
therapeuō
Attend to, care for; by extension, heal.
The verb translated “healed” belongs to a family that also means attending to or caring for someone. In the verse, this care follows the expulsion in the same sentence, making restoration the companion of release.
ALSO GROWS
therapeia: Care, service, or healing.
θεραπεία
This related noun keeps the sense of healing joined to the act of care.
therapeutēs: An attendant or caregiver.
θεραπευτής
This branch shows the family’s connection to attending to someone, giving the verse’s healing a sense of direct care.
THE PATTERN
A word spoken with authority acts on what it reaches, bringing change where darkness, affliction, or disorder holds.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.And all were stirred, so that they asked among themselves, saying, "What is this? What new teaching is this? With authority he commands even the unclean breaths, and they hear and respond to him."THE THREAD
The commander of a hundred answered and said, Lord, I am not enough for you to come under my roof, but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.“Word” in both verses is logos: in 8:8, the centurion trusts that a spoken word can heal at a distance; in 8:16, that word expels the spirits as Jesus heals the sick. The repeated word shows authority reaching the suffering through speech.
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