What Does Matthew 27:7 Mean in the King James?
And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
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 Greek word for “strangers” can also mean “guests,” holding the outsider and the welcomed guest in one word.
THE MEANING
This verse gives strangers a place in the community’s ground, but that place is for burial. The word can also name a guest, so the scene holds an uneasy form of welcome: the outsider receives a place only in death.
THE ROOT
ξένους
xénous
GROWS FROM
ξεν-
xen-
The Greek stem ξεν- names a foreigner or stranger and can also carry the sense of a guest.
The word holds the outsider and the guest in one family, so “strangers” does not mean only anonymous people at a distance. Here the outsider receives ground, but it is ground for burial: welcome and exclusion touch the same place.
ALSO GROWS
xenía: Hospitality or lodging offered to a stranger.
ξενία
This branch shows that the same word family can describe receiving the outsider as a guest.
philoxenía: Hospitality toward strangers.
φιλοξενία
This word family appears in Hebrews 13:2, where the KJV says to “entertain strangers,” giving the guest sense a direct scriptural echo.
THE PATTERN
A stranger’s standing is disclosed by what place a community makes for them.
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.THE THREAD
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:The word ξένος (xénos, “stranger/guest”) is shared by both verses. Here, the stranger is taken in while hungry and thirsty; in Matthew 27:7, strangers receive a place in burial, exposing the distance between hospitality in life and provision in death.
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