What Does John 18:5 Mean in the King James?
They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
What English calls betrayal is a handover verb, and John later uses that same verb for Jesus giving up his breath.
THE MEANING
You see betrayal and self-disclosure occupying the same moment. Judas stands beside the people who have come for Jesus, and Jesus answers openly, “I am he.” The handover is real, yet Jesus names himself in his own voice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that betrayal gives another person the authority to define the one betrayed.
THE ROOT
παραδιδοὺς
paradidous
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give
The Greek verb behind “betrayed” is built from δίδωμι (didōmi), “to give,” and pictures handing someone over into another’s custody. English centers the disloyalty; the word also names the transfer, made visible when Judas stands beside the party receiving Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
paradosis: handing over; delivery; transmission
παράδοσις
This word keeps the act of passing something onward visible, illuminating the transfer expressed by Judas’s action.
metadosis: sharing; impartation
μετάδοσις
The same giving family can describe sharing or passing something on; Judas’s handover is a stark instance of that transfer.
THE PATTERN
The handover verb can carry both betrayal and chosen self-giving; the agency of the one who gives shapes its meaning.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.THE THREAD
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.John 18:5 uses the hand-over verb for Judas; John 19:30 uses that same verb when Jesus gives up his πνεῦμα (pneuma), breath. The shared root places Judas’s betrayal beside Jesus’s own giving of his breath while keeping the two acts distinct.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us