What Does Matthew 8:33 Mean?
And those who kept them fled, and went into the city, and sent word of everything, and what had become of those held by demons.
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 they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.THE KEY
The men flee from the upheaval, but their flight carries the event into the city.
THE MEANING
What erupts at the edge does not remain there: the keepers run into the city and report everything, including what has happened to the men under demonic influence. The people who flee become the carriers of the event into public life.
THE ROOT
ἀπήγγειλαν
apēngeilan
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
To announce, report, or make something known.
“sent word” in this verse is apēngeilan. The Greek verb behind “told” belongs to the same word family as “messenger.” The keepers are not just speaking among themselves: they carry what happened from the pasture into the city’s knowledge.
ALSO GROWS
ángelos: Messenger
ἄγγελος
The shared stem links the keepers’ report to the act of carrying news to others.
angelía: Message or announcement
ἀγγελία
The report is a message that moves beyond the people who witnessed the event.
THE PATTERN
What witnesses discover beyond the center enters public life when they carry the account into a city or community.
Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we keep silent. If we wait until the morning light, crookedness will find us. So now come, and let us go and tell the king's house.Then the woman let go of her water jar, went away into the city, and said to the men.And he went away and began to herald in Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and all marveled.THE THREAD
When those who tended them saw what had happened, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the fields.Luke records the same movement: the herdsmen flee, then carry the account into the city and countryside. Their flight becomes the path by which what happened reaches other people.
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