What Does Matthew 9:20 Mean?
And look, a woman who had been flowing with blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.
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, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:THE KEY
The Greek word for “touched” can also mean “take hold,” so her contact at the garment’s edge is a deliberate grasp, not a passing brush.
THE MEANING
Long-term bleeding is present, and so is her capacity to move toward contact. She comes from behind and reaches the fringe without a word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a long affliction leaves a person only passive; she is still the one who moves and reaches.
THE ROOT
ἥψατο
hēpsato
GROWS FROM
ἅπτω
hapto
To fasten or attach; in the middle voice, to touch or take hold.
“touched” in this verse is hēpsato. The form here comes from ἅπτομαι (haptomai), a verb that can mean “touch” or “take hold.” The Greek keeps a sense of grasping and connection inside what English can make sound like incidental contact.
ALSO GROWS
haptomai: To touch, take hold of.
ἅπτομαι
This is the verb used here: she reaches and makes contact with the garment.
haphē: Touch, contact; also a joint or point of joining.
ἁφή
This related word can name a bodily joint, linking contact with the structure that joins one part to another.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly places restoration at the point where a suffering body makes physical contact.
And it came to be, as they were burying a man, behold, they saw a raiding band of men, and they cast the man into the cave of Elisha. And when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life, and stood up on his feet.And wherever he went, into villages, or cities, or fields, they laid the ones without strength in the marketplaces, and urged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak, and as many as touched him were delivered.THE THREAD
And it shall be to you for a tassel, that you may see it, and remember all the commands of the LORD, and do them, and that you not scout after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you go whoring.In the Greek translation of Numbers, “fringe” is κράσπεδον (kraspedon), the same word translated “hem” in Matthew. The edge she touches is a marked fringe associated with remembering the commandments, not just an unspecified edge of cloth.
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