What Does Matthew 26:55 Mean in the King James?
In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.
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
The word translated “thief” carries the sense of a violent bandit, so the armed seizure exposes the mismatch with Jesus’ open, daily teaching.
THE MEANING
The verse puts you inside the collision between open teaching and armed capture. The crowd approaches as though confronting a violent bandit, yet Jesus has been among them daily in the temple; the question makes that mismatch impossible to miss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that being seized with weapons proves someone is secretly dangerous: Jesus’ teaching has been public, while the weapons belong to the captors.
THE ROOT
λῃστής
lēstēs
GROWS FROM
ληστ-
lēst-
robbery or plunder, especially the sense of a robber or bandit
“thief” in this verse is lēstēs. The Greek word can mean a violent robber or bandit, sharpening the force of the swords and clubs in the scene. The crowd treats Jesus as a dangerous outlaw even though his teaching has been openly available to them day after day.
ALSO GROWS
lēsteia: robbery, banditry
ληστεία
This related noun carries the same sense of violent robbery behind the armed approach.
lēizomai: to plunder, rob
ληίζομαι
The verb shows the plundering force associated with this word family, making the crowd’s choice of weapons part of the accusation.
ἐκρατήσατε
ekratēsate
GROWS FROM
κρατ-
krat-
strength, power, mastery
The verb translated “laid no hold” carries the sense of seizing or exercising control. Its family connects holding someone with power and mastery, setting the crowd’s forceful grip against teaching that has been public all along.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: strength, might, power
κράτος
This noun names the force or power contained in the verb’s sense of taking hold.
enkrateia: self-control, mastery
ἐγκράτεια
This related word turns the same idea of mastery inward, showing the range from grasping another to governing oneself.
THE PATTERN
Open teaching leaves a public record against which claims of hidden danger can be tested.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.THE THREAD
I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.Mark uses the same Greek verb κρατέω (krateō), meaning “to seize” or “hold,” as Matthew’s “laid no hold.” The shared word puts the contrast in focus: daily public teaching stands beside a sudden attempt to take him by force.
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