What Does Luke 24:20 Mean?
And how the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to the sentence of death, and crucified him.
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 how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.THE KEY
The handover is the hinge: the rulers pass Jesus into a judgment of death, and the next clause names crucifixion as its enactment.
THE MEANING
You see condemnation move through human hands: rulers hand Jesus to a judgment of death, and the next clause gives that judgment bodily form in crucifixion. The verse holds the transfer and the execution together, keeping the handover visible as part of the violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The violence begins only with the execution; the sentence and the handover are neutral steps.
THE ROOT
παρέδωκαν
paredōkan
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give; with παρά (para), to give over or hand across.
“handed him over” in this verse is paredōkan. The same Greek verb family appears as “delivered” here and “betrayed” in Luke 22:22: both render παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, “hand over”). English gives two names to one transfer, showing how Jesus passes from the rulers’ hands into the death sentence.
ALSO GROWS
paradosis: Handing over; transmission; tradition.
παράδοσις
This branch names what is passed from one person or generation to another, revealing the transfer built into the handover.
dosis: Giving; a gift.
δόσις
It preserves the base act of giving inside the forceful verb: here Jesus is given over into the judgment of death.
κρίμα θανάτου
krima thanatou
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To judge, decide, or distinguish.
“sentence of death” in this verse is krima thanatou. The Greek phrase εἰς κρίμα θανάτου (eis krima thanatou, “to a judgment of death”) leaves both the decision and its outcome in view. The κρίνω (krinō, “judge, decide”) family connects the act of judging with the judgment handed down, then the next clause shows that judgment carried out.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment; decision.
κρίσις
This branch names the act or result of deciding, keeping the ruling visible within the verse’s movement toward execution.
kritēs: Judge.
κριτής
This branch names the one who decides, connecting human agents to the judgment passed on Jesus.
THE PATTERN
The handover is the hinge where a human agent’s act meets death and what follows.
For the Son of Man goes, as it has been marked out, but woe to that man through whom he is handed over!This one, handed over by the marked-out counsel and foreknowing of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of the unbounded, and you killed him.Who was handed over for our stumbles, and raised for our alignment.THE THREAD
Jesus answered, You would have no authority at all against me, unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you has a greater shortcoming.John uses παραδούς (paradous, “the one who handed over”) for the person who delivers Jesus to Pilate, from the same verb family as Luke’s παρέδωκαν (paredōkan, “they handed over”). The connection makes the transfer’s human agent visible and places that act alongside the authority Pilate receives from above.
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