What Does Matthew 9:23 Mean?

And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute-players and the crowd stirred in tumult.

Matthew 9:23 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,

THE KEY

The house is already filled with flute music and uproar when Jesus enters and sees it.

THE MEANING

The ruler’s house is filled with flute players and a crowd in tumult. Jesus enters into that sound and sees the scene as it is. The noise is present, but it is not all that is present.

THE ROOT

θορυβούμενον

thoryboumenon

GROWS FROM

θορυβέω

thorybeō

to make a tumult; to disturb

“stirred in tumult” in this verse is thoryboumenon. The word translated “noise” carries the sense of disturbance and uproar, not sound alone. Greek ⁨θορυβέω⁩ (thorybeō, to make a tumult) connects the crowd’s sound with the disruption filling the house.

ALSO GROWS

thorybos: tumult; uproar

θόρυβος

This related noun makes clear that the sound is a commotion, not merely a collection of voices.

thorybeō: to make an uproar; to disturb

θορυβέω

The verb names what the crowd’s sound does to the room: it makes the scene turbulent.

αὐλητάς

auletas

GROWS FROM

αὐλέω

auleō

to play the flute

“flute-players” in this verse is auletas. The word translated “minstrels” specifies flute players. Their played music stands beside the crowd’s ⁨θορυβέω⁩ (thorybeō, tumult-making) uproar: the house holds both a played sound and a disturbance.

ALSO GROWS

aulos: flute

αὐλός

The instrument is present inside the word for the players, making their sound concrete.

auletēs: flute player

αὐλητής

This related noun identifies the people in the room by the instrument they play.

THE PATTERN

The noise surrounding a crisis can be real without being the final account of what is happening.

The LORD will fight for you, and you will hold your tongue.

Exodus 14:14 · SDVThe verse places the people’s stillness beside the LORD’s action, so the crisis does not claim the whole scene.

Release your grip, and perceive that I AM God; I am lifted high among the nations, I am lifted high in the earth.

Psalm 46:10 · SDVThe call to release one’s grip and perceive God opens a way of knowing beyond the surrounding tumult.

And after the quaking, a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire, a sound of thin stillness.

1 Kings 19:12 · SDVThe verse distinguishes divine presence from the loud forces around it and attends to the quiet voice that follows.

THE THREAD

And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why make this uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeps."

Mark 5:39 · SDV

Matthew’s “making a noise” and Mark’s “ado” translate forms of ⁨θορυβέω⁩ (thorybeō, to make a tumult). Mark makes explicit what Matthew’s verse stages: Jesus addresses the uproar while naming the girl’s condition otherwise.

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