What Does Matthew 27:30 Mean in the King James?
And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
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 reed passed to Jesus as a mock scepter becomes the weapon used against his head.
THE MEANING
You see contempt enacted on Jesus’ body: spit humiliates him, and a reed is used to strike his head. The scene holds mockery together with physical assault, keeping the violence visible and bodily.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Humiliation is only verbal or symbolic; here it takes the form of spit and blows to the body.
THE ROOT
ἔτυπτον
etypton
GROWS FROM
τυπ-
typ-
The Greek stem carries the sense of striking or beating; a related word in the same family means an imprint or mark.
The form ἔτυπτον (etypton, “they were striking”) is the imperfect of τύπτω (typtō, “strike, beat”), presenting the blows as continuing action. The same word-family gives τύπος (typos, “imprint, mark, pattern”), holding the blow and its impression close in a way the English word “smote” does not show.
ALSO GROWS
typtō: Strike or beat.
τύπτω
This is the verb behind “smote”; its form here presents the striking as continuing.
typos: Imprint, mark, pattern, or example.
τύπος
John 20:25 uses this word for the print of the nails, linking the striking word-family to a bodily impression.
THE PATTERN
Contempt becomes bodily violence through spitting and blows.
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.THE THREAD
The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.Matthew’s verb τύπτω (typtō, “strike”) and John’s τύπος (typos, “imprint”) belong to the same Greek word-family. The later reference to the nail prints makes the trace of bodily violence visible in the risen Jesus.
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