What Does Matthew 9:22 Mean?
But Jesus turned back, and seeing her, said, Take heart, daughter. The leaning of your full weight has delivered you. And the woman was delivered from that hour.
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
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.THE KEY
The verb behind both “made thee whole” and “was made whole” also means “deliver,” presenting wholeness as deliverance taking form.
THE MEANING
You are met here by Jesus turning toward the person in need, seeing her, and calling her daughter. Her trust is the reaching that receives deliverance, and the verse names its result as wholeness from that hour.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a hidden condition makes a person invisible is undone: Jesus turns toward her, sees her, and addresses her directly as daughter.
THE ROOT
σῴζω
sōzō
GROWS FROM
σωζ-
sōz-
To deliver, rescue, preserve, or bring to safety and wholeness.
“has delivered you” in this verse is sōzō. Both “hath made thee whole” and “was made whole” come from this same verb. The verse holds healing and deliverance together: what happens to her is not merely a change in condition, but a bringing through into wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēria: deliverance, salvation
σωτηρία
This related noun makes clear that the verb behind “whole” also belongs to the language of deliverance.
sōtēr: deliverer, savior
σωτήρ
The same word family names the one who brings rescue, illuminating the deliverance contained in her wholeness.
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
To persuade, bring to confidence, or trust.
“The leaning of your full weight” in this verse is pistis. Here “faith” carries the sense of trust: leaning your full weight on the one you reach toward. It describes a relation of reliance, not only an idea held in the mind.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: trust, believe
πιστεύω
This verb from the same family shows pistis as trust placed in someone, as her trust is placed in Jesus.
pistos: firm, steady, trustworthy
πιστός
This branch brings out the steadiness held within trust: the confidence on which a person can lean.
THE PATTERN
Healing and deliverance name one movement toward wholeness.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.This one heard Paul speaking, and stretching his gaze upon him, saw that he had trust to be delivered.THE THREAD
This one heard Paul speaking, and stretching his gaze upon him, saw that he had trust to be delivered.“Healed” here comes from the same Greek verb, sōzō, translated “made whole” in Matthew. The shared root reveals that healing and deliverance belong to the same language of being brought through into wholeness.
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