What Does Luke 22:5 Mean?
And they were glad, and set terms with him to give him silver.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.THE KEY
Their gladness marks the moment betrayal becomes a shared, priced arrangement.
THE MEANING
You can see how agreement and reward can make betrayal feel like success to the people arranging it. Their shared intent takes shape as a deal, but the payment does not change what the deal is for.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that an action becomes right once a group agrees and money changes hands dissolves here: agreement gives betrayal a price and a plan, not a different nature.
THE ROOT
συνέθεντο
synethento
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
to put, place, or set
“set terms” in this verse is synethento. The root lets you see the agreement as something they put together: their intentions, the payment, and the betrayal join into one settled arrangement. The English word carries the sense of a solemn agreement; the Greek also shows the act of assembling its terms.
ALSO GROWS
syntithēmi: to put together; to agree or make a compact
συντίθημι
This is the verb behind συνέθεντο here: the men join their intentions into an agreement.
synkatatithēmi: to consent or agree with
συγκατατίθημι
Luke 23:51 uses this related compound when Joseph does not consent to the council’s counsel and deed.
diathēkē: covenant or arrangement
διαθήκη
This related word carries the sense of an arrangement set in place, showing another branch of the same root family.
THE PATTERN
A group can make betrayal feel acceptable by binding it to a shared plan, price, or oath.
Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brothers heard and responded.And said to them, What will you give me, and I will hand him over to you? And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.When day came, certain of the Jews twisted themselves together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had lifted Paul out of the way.THE THREAD
He had not agreed with their plan and their deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, and he was himself reaching toward the governance of God.Luke uses another compound of τίθημι (tithēmi, to put or set) for “consented.” Joseph does not join himself to their counsel and deed, the same root family that shows the agreement in this verse also makes visible the possibility of refusing to join it.
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