What Does Matthew 27:6 Mean in the King James?

And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.

Matthew 27:6 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The silver cannot enter the treasury as anonymous money: its name still says blood.

THE MEANING

The money’s source remains present in what it is called: it is the price of blood. Even as the priests handle the coins, they say that this origin makes them unlawful for the treasury.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that money becomes neutral once it is received: its source still matters when deciding where it may go.

THE ROOT

τιμή

timē

GROWS FROM

τιμ-

Value, esteem, or honor.

The word translated “price” belongs to the same word-family as honor and preciousness; it names assigned value, not coins in isolation. Here, the silver carries a valuation placed on a life, and that valuation remains even when the priests reject its destination.

ALSO GROWS

timaō: To honor or value.

τιμάω

It shares the ⁨τιμ-⁩ stem and shows that the word-family of “price” also names the act of assigning worth.

timios: Precious, valuable, or honored.

τίμιος

It shares the same stem and makes the connection between monetary value and what is esteemed explicit.

αἷμα

haima

GROWS FROM

αἱματ-

Blood; ⁨αἱματ-⁩ is the stem appearing in forms of the word.

This stem also forms words for blood-shedding and blood-staining, so “blood” is not an abstract moral label but the language of a substance poured out. The silver remains named by that bodily cost even when the discussion turns to where it may be deposited.

ALSO GROWS

haimatekchysia: Blood-shedding.

αἱματεκχυσία

The shared ⁨αἱματ-⁩ stem keeps the price linked to the act of shedding blood.

haimatēros: Bloody or blood-stained.

αἱματηρός

This branch shows how the same stem can describe something marked by blood, echoing the money’s stated origin.

THE PATTERN

What is brought before God remains joined to the way it was obtained.

Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

Deuteronomy 23:18 · KJVThe value is judged by its source; even a vow does not make forbidden gain fit for the house of the LORD.

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah 1:15 · KJVBlood on the worshippers’ hands remains present in their prayers, so ritual approach does not erase violence.

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

James 5:4 · KJVWithheld wages remain a cry against the employer, showing that economic injustice carries into divine hearing.

THE THREAD

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 6:20 · KJV

Matthew uses ⁨τιμή⁩ for the silver’s “price”; Paul uses the same Greek word when saying you are bought with a price. The shared word carries the question of value from these coins to the reader’s own life.

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