What Does Matthew 9:32 Mean?
As they went out, look, they brought to him a mute man, held by a demon.
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
As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.THE KEY
Being unable to speak does not make someone unreachable: others carry the mute man into the presence of Jesus.
THE MEANING
The scene places you within reach while your voice is still absent: others can bring you before Jesus before you can speak for yourself. Being unable to call out does not make you unseen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must be able to name your need before anyone can bring you within reach.
THE ROOT
δαιμονιζόμενον
daimonizomenon
GROWS FROM
δαιμον-
daimon-
Demon or spirit; this word describes someone under demonic influence.
“held by a demon” in this verse is daimonizomenon. The Greek participle comes from δαίμων (daimōn, demon or spirit), a different word-family from διάβολος (diabolos, the Slanderer). That distinction gives the verse a more specific texture: it describes the man as being demonized.
ALSO GROWS
daimōn: Demon or spirit
δαίμων
This noun is the seed behind the participle describing the man’s condition.
daimonion: Demon or spirit-being
δαιμόνιον
This related form names the source of the influence described in the verse.
προσήνεγκαν
prosēnenkan
GROWS FROM
φέρω
pherō
To bear, carry, or bring.
The verb is a form of προσφέρω (prospherō, bring or carry toward), with φέρω (pherō, carry or bear) at its center. The same verb-family can describe presenting an offering, giving “brought” the added shade of placing someone before another’s attention.
ALSO GROWS
pherō: Bear, carry, bring
φέρω
The base verb holds the carrying inside the act of bringing the man to Jesus.
prosphora: Offering, presentation
προσφορά
This related noun connects bringing with presenting something before another.
THE PATTERN
Scripture marks the restoration of a silenced person by the return of speech.
Then the limping one leaps like a hart, and the tongue of the mute rings out. For waters split open in the wilderness, and streams in the desert plain.And they were struck out of themselves beyond all overflowing, saying, He has done all things finely. He makes the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak.He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. When the demon came out, the mute one spoke, and the crowds marveled.THE THREAD
And when the demon was thrown out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, Never has it been seen like this in Israel.The next verse uses the same Greek word, κωφός (kōphos, mute or deaf), for the man who now speaks. The word for the person without speech stays attached to him even as his voice returns.
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