What Does Matthew 8:24 Mean?
And behold, a great shaking arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered by the waves; but he himself was sleeping.
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, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.THE KEY
The word rendered “tempest” means earthquake or shaking, so the sea itself is pictured in upheaval while Jesus sleeps inside the boat.
THE MEANING
The boat is being covered by waves, and Jesus remains asleep within it. His sleep does not make the danger unreal or place him outside the threatened vessel. In your own upheaval, the scene holds danger and presence together without explaining either away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sleeping Jesus is not an absent Jesus; the verse places him in the boat even as waves cover it.
THE ROOT
σεισμὸς
seismos
GROWS FROM
σείω
seíō
To shake or set in motion.
The Greek noun σεισμός means shaking or earthquake, and Matthew uses the same word for an earthquake elsewhere. “Tempest” can suggest weather alone; σεισμός pictures the sea itself undergoing a violent shaking.
ALSO GROWS
seismos: Shaking, earthquake
σεισμός
This is the noun in the verse, giving the storm the force of a great shaking.
seíō: Shake, move violently
σείω
The verb beneath the noun keeps the image focused on the sea being shaken, not merely on rough weather.
καλύπτεσθαι
kalýptesthai
GROWS FROM
καλύπτω
kalýptō
To cover or conceal.
“covered” in this verse is kalýptesthai. The vessel is described as being under a covering of waves. The same word family also gives Greek its word for uncovering or revealing, holding concealment and the removal of a cover in one family without promising when the covering lifts.
ALSO GROWS
apokalyptō: Uncover, reveal
ἀποκαλύπτω
The word shares καλύπτω with “covered,” but names the uncovering that exposes what was hidden.
kalymma: Covering, veil
κάλυμμα
This related noun makes the image of the waves covering the boat part of a wider word family of coverings.
THE PATTERN
Sleep can persist inside danger without making that danger unreal or proving the sleeper has left the scene.
Then the sailors were afraid, and each one cried out to his god. They hurled the vessels of the ship into the sea, to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.And when Herod was about to lead him forth, that same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the guards before the door were watching over the prison.I lie down and sleep; I wake, for the LORD bears my weight.THE THREAD
When the centurion and those with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that happened, they were struck with great fear, saying, In truth this was the Son of God.The Greek word translated “tempest” here is σεισμός (seismos), the same word translated “earthquake” in this verse. English gives the two disturbances different names, while Matthew repeats the word for a great shaking.
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