What Does Mark 15:15 Mean in the King James?
And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
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
Pilate releases one man while handing another over to violence, with the crowd’s satisfaction setting the terms of justice.
THE MEANING
Public approval becomes the measure of judgment: Pilate releases Barabbas, then hands Jesus over to be scourged and crucified. Freedom for one stands beside violence against another. The verse shows how appeasement transfers its cost onto the person given over.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that keeping the crowd satisfied is neutral: Pilate’s appeasement is a choice that sends violence toward Jesus.
THE ROOT
ἀπέλυσεν
apelysen
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
To loosen, untie, or release.
The verb translated “released” carries the sense of loosening or letting go. Barabbas is named as being unbound, and that freedom is set beside Jesus being handed over.
ALSO GROWS
apolýō: To release or dismiss.
ἀπολύω
This is the verb form behind “released,” naming Barabbas’s release as a letting go.
lýsis: A loosening or release.
λύσις
The noun preserves the same image of something being loosened from its hold.
katalýō: To loosen, dismantle, or bring down.
καταλύω
This branch shows how loosening can extend from freeing someone to undoing what holds something together.
παρέδωκεν
paredōken
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give; in παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi), to hand over or deliver.
“delivered” in this verse is paredōken. The verb παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi, “hand over”) is built from δίδωμι (didōmi, “give”) with παρά (pará, “over” or “beside”). Pilate does not merely stop protecting Jesus; he gives him over to scourging and crucifixion, making this an active choice.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give or grant.
δίδωμι
This is the giving-root inside “delivered,” showing the handover as an act of giving Jesus into another course of action.
paradídōmi: To hand over or deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used for Pilate’s act, set in sharp contrast with the loosening that releases Barabbas.
metadídōmi: To share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
From the same give-root, this branch shows giving as sharing; here, giving over instead places Jesus into the path of violence.
THE PATTERN
When those in power make public approval their aim, justice becomes negotiable and someone bears the cost.
And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cæsar.For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.THE THREAD
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.Mark’s “delivered” is παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi, “hand over”); Romans 4:25 uses the same verb for Jesus being handed over. Romans then sets that handover beside resurrection, extending the thread beyond Pilate’s sentence.
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