What Does Matthew 9:10 Mean?
And as he reclined at table in the house, look, many toll-takers and those who miss the mark came and reclined with him and his learners.
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 it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.THE KEY
The Greek calls these guests “sinners” and then places them reclining with Jesus, so the label does not keep them outside the shared table.
THE MEANING
A label of failure does not place the reader beyond nearness to Jesus. People called sinners come into the house and share the table with him and his disciples. Their missing remains named, yet it does not erase their place in the room.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a person marked as a sinner must stay distant until worthy of company is undone here: they are already at the table with Jesus.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτωλοί
hamartōloi
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
The Greek stem ἁμαρτ- (hamart-) carries the sense of missing, going astray, or erring.
“those who miss the mark” in this verse is hamartōloi. English “sinners” can sound like a fixed kind of person, while the Greek word belongs to a family that names missing or erring. The verse keeps that missing in view while showing that people bearing the label are still near enough to recline with Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: to miss, err
ἁμαρτάνω
It shares the ἁμαρτ- stem and names the action behind ἁμαρτωλός.
hamartia: missing, error, sin
ἁμαρτία
It shares the same stem and names the missing itself, keeping the label connected to an action or condition rather than a separate kind of human.
συνανέκειντο
synanekeinto
GROWS FROM
κει-
The Greek root κει- (kei-), from κεῖμαι (keimai), means to lie or be laid, and in this compound to recline at table.
“reclined with” in this verse is synanekeinto. The verse uses one compound for Jesus reclining in the house and another for the guests reclining with him; both grow from κει- (kei-, to lie or recline). English gives two different phrases, while Greek makes their shared posture at the meal visible.
ALSO GROWS
anakeimai: to recline at table
ἀνάκειμαι
It shares κει- and is used of Jesus reclining at the meal earlier in this verse.
katakeimai: to lie down, recline
κατάκειμαι
It shares κει- and carries the same reclining root into another setting.
THE PATTERN
A shared table can hold people whose labels or histories would otherwise keep them apart.
You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.And he said to them, You know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to cling to, or come near, one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.THE THREAD
But go and learn what this means, I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the aligned, but those who miss the mark to turning.Jesus names sinners again with the same Greek family, ἁμαρτωλός (hamartōlos, one who misses or errs). The table in verse 10 already shows those marked by missing in his company.
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