What Does Matthew 8:7 Mean?
And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.
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 Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.THE KEY
The Greek word translated “heal” also carries the sense of attending to someone, so healing here is care that comes near.
THE MEANING
The verse presents care as moving toward the person in need: Jesus comes to the suffering person and heals him. For the reader, his coming and his healing belong together as one movement of personal care.
THE ROOT
θεραπεύσω
therapeusō
GROWS FROM
θεραπ-
Therap- (θεραπ-) carries the sense of attending to, serving, caring for, and treating; θεραπεύω (therapeuō) means to attend to or treat and, in this verse, to heal.
“heal” in this verse is therapeusō. The verb holds healing together with attentive care. Jesus does not speak of healing as a detached result: he says he will come and attend to the person who needs it.
ALSO GROWS
therapeia: care, treatment, healing
θεραπεία
This noun names healing as care or treatment, as in Luke 9:11, where people have need of healing.
therapeutēs: attendant, caregiver, healer
θεραπευτής
This agent noun describes one who attends or cares, making the healer’s work relational as well as restorative.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁע
Yashaʿ (יָשַׁע) means to deliver; in this lens, deliverance is movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
The name Jesus comes through Greek Iēsous from Hebrew Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ), related to yashaʿ (יָשַׁע), to deliver. Deliverance is carried in the nature of the one who promises to come.
ALSO GROWS
yesha: deliverance, rescue
יֵשַׁע
This noun shares the root consonants yod, shin, and ayin, naming the deliverance held in Jesus’ name.
yeshuah: deliverance, salvation
יְשׁוּעָה
This word grows from the same root and echoes the name Yeshua, joining the person who comes with the deliverance he brings.
THE PATTERN
Healing takes form as care that reaches the wounded and binds up what is broken.
He mends the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.And Jesus went around all the cities and villages, teaching in their gatherings, heralding the good news of the governance, and healing every sickness and every weakness among the people.And the crowds, when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spoke to them of the governance of God, and healed those who had need of healing.THE THREAD
And the crowds, when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spoke to them of the governance of God, and healed those who had need of healing.Luke uses θεραπείας (therapeias, healing or care), a noun from the same Greek family as Matthew’s θεραπεύσω (therapeusō, “I will heal”). Matthew describes care arriving with Jesus; Luke shows people receiving that same care.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us