What Does Matthew 27:58 Mean in the King James?
He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
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 handover that marks Jesus’ death now becomes the body’s release into Joseph’s care.
THE MEANING
As you read, Jesus’ body remains concrete: Joseph asks for it, and Pilate commands it to be handed over. Authority still determines where the body goes, and here that command opens a passage into another person’s care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Death does not make the body an abstraction or erase its claim on care.
THE ROOT
ἀποδοθῆναι
apodothēnai
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give, grant, or hand over
“delivered” in this verse is apodothēnai. The Greek carries the sense of giving over or giving back. In the Passion, compounds built on this same giving-root describe Jesus being handed over to death and now his body being handed over to Joseph: the destination changes, but the act of transfer remains.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: hand over, deliver, betray
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used when Jesus is handed over to be crucified; the shared didōmi root links that transfer with the body’s later passage into Joseph’s hands.
metadidōmi: share, impart
μεταδίδωμι
The same giving-root can describe something passed on for another to receive, adding the sense of transfer that shapes this moment.
THE PATTERN
After death, a body can still be received, recovered, and carried into the care of others.
All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.THE THREAD
Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.Betrayed translates παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), built on the same δίδωμι (didōmi), to give, root as delivered in this verse. The same family of words carries Jesus into death and then describes his body passing into Joseph’s hands.
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