What Does Luke 22:5 Mean in the King James?
And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.
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
Their gladness marks the moment betrayal becomes a shared, priced arrangement.
THE MEANING
You can see how agreement and reward can make betrayal feel like success to the people arranging it. Their shared intent takes shape as a deal, but the payment does not change what the deal is for.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that an action becomes right once a group agrees and money changes hands dissolves here: agreement gives betrayal a price and a plan, not a different nature.
THE ROOT
συνέθεντο
synethento
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
to put, place, or set
“covenanted” in this verse is synethento. The root lets you see the agreement as something they put together: their intentions, the payment, and the betrayal join into one settled arrangement. The English word carries the sense of a solemn agreement; the Greek also shows the act of assembling its terms.
ALSO GROWS
syntithēmi: to put together; to agree or make a compact
συντίθημι
This is the verb behind συνέθεντο here: the men join their intentions into an agreement.
synkatatithēmi: to consent or agree with
συγκατατίθημι
Luke 23:51 uses this related compound when Joseph does not consent to the council’s counsel and deed.
diathēkē: covenant or arrangement
διαθήκη
This related word carries the sense of an arrangement set in place, showing another branch of the same root family.
THE PATTERN
A group can make betrayal feel acceptable by binding it to a shared plan, price, or oath.
Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.THE THREAD
(The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathæa, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.Luke uses another compound of τίθημι (tithēmi, to put or set) for “consented.” Joseph does not join himself to their counsel and deed, the same root family that shows the agreement in this verse also makes visible the possibility of refusing to join it.
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