What Does Matthew 9:8 Mean?
But when the crowds saw it, they were struck with awe and gave weight to God, who had given such authority to humankind.
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 when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.THE KEY
The verse makes God’s authority visible in human beings while keeping God as its source.
THE MEANING
God’s restoring authority becomes visible through human beings, and the crowd’s response recognizes the one who gives it. The gift reaches people without making them its source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine authority is visible only apart from human beings: here God gives it among them, and the crowd still recognizes God as its source.
THE ROOT
ἐξουσίαν
exousian
GROWS FROM
ἔξεστι
exesti
It is permitted; it lies within one’s right or capacity to act.
The Greek word translated “power” is exousia: authority or right to act, not mere strength. Its connection with exesti, “it is permitted,” gives the verse the sense of authority granted to human beings.
ALSO GROWS
exousia: Authority, right, jurisdiction.
ἐξουσία
This is the noun used in the verse: the authority God gives.
exousiazō: To exercise authority or have mastery.
ἐξουσιάζω
It shows the same word family extending from granted authority to its exercise.
δόντα
donta
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant.
The word translated “had given” names God as the giver of the authority. The same family names both the act of giving and what is given, so the authority arrives as a gift rather than a possession claimed as its own.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: Giving; a gift.
δόσις
It holds together the act of giving and what passes from giver to recipient.
dōrea: Gift; something freely given.
δωρεά
It makes the verse’s transfer of authority legible as a gift.
ἐδόξασαν
edoxasan
GROWS FROM
δοξάζω
doxazō
To honor or recognize as weighty.
“gave weight to” in this verse is edoxasan. The crowd’s response gives weight to God as the source, even as authority appears among human beings. The verse holds both together: the gift is seen in people, and its weight is recognized in God.
ALSO GROWS
doxa: Honor, reputation, glory; weight.
δόξα
This noun carries the recognition and weight expressed by the crowd’s response.
endoxos: Held in honor; notable.
ἔνδοξος
It shows the same family describing someone regarded with honor.
THE PATTERN
Authority entrusted by God becomes visible through human beings while its source remains God.
And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Bear fruit and multiply, and fill the earth, and tread it under your foot, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the winged of the heavens, and over every living thing that creeps upon the earth."But I have a greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father has given me to finish, these same works that I do, bear witness about me, that the Father has sent me.Then Peter said, Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the nature of Jesus the Anointed One of Nazareth, rise up and walk.THE THREAD
As you have given him power over all flesh, that he may give the life of the ages to as many as you have given him.John 17:2 repeats the same pairing of “given” and “power,” using the same Greek roots found here. The shared wording reveals authority as something received from God and exercised toward others.
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