What Does Mark 10:40 Mean?
But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is given to those for whom it has been prepared.
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
But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.THE KEY
The place is prepared before it is given, so a request cannot make it yours.
THE MEANING
“But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.” A place of honor is not secured by asking the speaker to award it; it is given to those for whom it is prepared. The verse leaves those recipients unnamed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that asking for the highest place, or having influence with the one who speaks, is enough to secure it.
THE ROOT
ἡτοίμασται
hētoimastai
GROWS FROM
ἑτοιμαζ- (ἑτοιμάζω)
Make ready, prepare.
“prepared” in this verse is hētoimastai. The Greek says the place has been made ready for its recipients. The related words for “ready” and “prepare beforehand” keep readiness and preparation in the same word family, revealing a place made ready before it is occupied.
ALSO GROWS
hetoimos: Ready, prepared.
ἕτοιμος
This branch names the state that preparation brings about: readiness.
proetoimazō: Prepare beforehand.
προετοιμάζω
This compound appears in Ephesians 2:10, where good works are prepared beforehand; it echoes the idea that what is received can be made ready in advance.
διδόναι
didonai
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give, grant, put into another’s possession.
“give” in this verse is didonai. The verse first denies that the speaker gives these places by personal choice, then says they are given to those for whom they are prepared. The repeated giving language keeps the focus on receiving what is appointed, rather than claiming it.
ALSO GROWS
apodidōmi: Give back, render, or repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
The compound shows how the same giving verb can describe something passed back or rendered to someone.
metadidōmi: Share, impart.
μεταδίδωμι
This branch makes visible that giving can mean sharing something with another, while Mark specifies who receives the prepared place.
THE PATTERN
Provision is pictured as made ready before it is occupied or received.
You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.In my Father's house are many places to remain. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to make ready a place for you.For we are his making, created in the Anointed One, Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that in them we might walk.THE THREAD
In my Father's house are many places to remain. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to make ready a place for you.John uses the same Greek verb family for preparing a place. Mark leaves the preparer unnamed, while John makes preparation itself the action; together, the verses turn attention from claiming a place to its being made ready.
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