What Does Matthew 26:30 Mean in the King James?
And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.
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 hymn gives way to an exit onto olive ground, where the Greek place-name shares its word-family with oil and its imagery of anointing.
THE MEANING
Praise and movement belong together here: the song does not suspend the next step, and the departure carries the singers toward what they cannot yet see. The name of the mountain keeps olives and their oil in the scene, with oil’s association with anointing. This pattern speaks now: devotion can sound while the path remains open and uncertain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Praise does not mean everything has reached a resting place; the singers still go out.
THE ROOT
Ἐλαιῶν
Elaiōn
GROWS FROM
ἐλαι-
elai-
Olive; the olive tree or its fruit.
The Greek says “the mountain of the olives,” naming the place by what grows there. The related word ἔλαιον means olive oil, bringing the oil used for anointing into the word-family beneath the English place-name.
ALSO GROWS
elaia: Olive tree or olive fruit.
ἐλαία
This is the word in “Mount of Olives”; it makes the destination more specific than an unnamed mountain.
elaion: Oil, especially olive oil.
ἔλαιον
Its shared word-family lets the olive place-name carry the image of oil and anointing.
ἐξῆλθον
Exēlthon
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι (erchomai), with ἐξ- (ex-, out)
Ἔρχομαι means come or go; the prefix ἐξ- gives the movement an outward direction.
“Went out” in this verse is Exēlthon. The Greek verb holds the movement of coming or going inside the act of going out. The same verb appears when Judas goes out after receiving the sop, giving this shared departure a striking contrast.
ALSO GROWS
eiserchomai: Enter or come in.
εἰσέρχομαι
The same base verb ἔρχομαι takes the prefix εἰς- (eis-, into), turning movement outward into movement inward.
dierchomai: Go through or pass through.
διέρχομαι
The same base verb takes διά- (dia-, through), showing how its prefixes frame different directions of movement.
THE PATTERN
Praise accompanies passage: song can travel with a procession or sound at the threshold of a journey.
Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.THE THREAD
He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.The Greek verb behind “went out” is ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai) in both verses: here the disciples go out with Jesus after singing; there Judas goes out after receiving the sop. The shared verb makes the exit a hinge between two departures, one with a hymn, one into the night.
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