What Does Matthew 9:35 Mean?
And Jesus went around all the cities and villages, teaching in their gatherings, heralding the good news of the governance, and healing every sickness and every weakness among the people.
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 Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.THE KEY
The kingdom is announced as a governance that reaches the body: its message and its healing arrive together.
THE MEANING
Here, Jesus moves through every kind of place, teaching, announcing the governance of God, and tending every kind of illness among the people. The announcement reaches bodily life: care and restoration accompany the words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that God’s reign is only an idea, or that bodily sickness lies outside its concern; proclamation and healing form one movement.
THE ROOT
βασιλείας
basileias
GROWS FROM
βασιλεύς (basileus), with the family stem βασιλευ- (basileu-)
Kingship, reign, or rule, the active governance of a king.
English “kingdom” can suggest a territory, while βασιλεία names the rule itself. Here, that governance is shown in motion through teaching, proclamation, and healing among the people.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: King, ruler.
βασιλεύς
The king is the source of the rule Jesus announces.
basileuō: To be king, reign, or rule.
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the family’s sense of active governance explicit.
θεραπεύων
therapeuōn
GROWS FROM
θεραπεύω (therapeuō), with the stem θεραπευ- (therapeu-)
To attend to, care for, or treat; also, to heal.
English “healing” foregrounds the result; the Greek verb can also mean attending to or caring for someone. The verse places that care within the same movement as public teaching, extending it across sickness and disease.
ALSO GROWS
therapeia: Attendance, service, or healing.
θεραπεία
This related noun makes the attentive work within healing visible.
therapeutēs: One who attends or serves.
θεραπευτής
The related word carries the sense of care toward another that also lives in the healing verb.
κηρύσσων
kēryssōn
GROWS FROM
κηρύσσω (kēryssō), with the stem κηρυκ- (kēryk-)
To proclaim publicly as a herald.
“heralding” in this verse is kēryssōn. The verse presents the gospel as a public announcement of God’s governance, not only as private instruction. Its announcement travels through cities and villages alongside care that reaches the sick.
ALSO GROWS
kēryx: A public messenger or announcer.
κῆρυξ
The herald gives the verb its public, outward-facing character.
kērygma: An announcement or message proclaimed.
κήρυγμα
This related noun shows that what Jesus preaches is an announcement carried into public life.
THE PATTERN
The announcement of God’s reign becomes visible through teaching and care that restores people.
The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.And the crowds, when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spoke to them of the governance of God, and healed those who had need of healing.How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Set-Apart Breath and with power, who went through, doing good and healing all who were pressed down by the Slanderer, for God was with him.THE THREAD
And saying, "The season has been filled, and the governance of God has drawn near. Turn, and lean your weight on the good news."Mark uses the same Greek words for “kingdom” and “gospel” that Matthew 9:35 names. It says this governance is at hand; Matthew shows its announcement arriving among the people with healing.
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