What Does Mark 14:11 Mean?
And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him silver. And he sought how he might hand him over at the right moment.
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 when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him.THE KEY
The verse uses one family of words for two transfers: the money given to Judas and Jesus handed over by Judas.
THE MEANING
You see betrayal take shape as a transaction: money is promised, and Judas searches for the right moment to hand Jesus over. The Greek carries the same root of giving in the payment and the handover, making the person transferred visible beneath the sum.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that betrayal is only a sudden break dissolves here: it can be priced and timed before the handover happens.
THE ROOT
παραδίδωμι
paradidōmi
GROWS FROM
δο-/δω- (do-/dō-)
Give; this Greek verb base carries the sense of giving or transferring.
The Greek line says they promise ἀργύριον δοῦναι (argyrion dounai, to give silver), while Judas seeks a way to παραδῷ (paradō, hand him over). English gives “give” and “betray” different faces, but both carry the root of giving; the difference is what, and whom, the giving transfers.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: Give.
δίδωμι
The promised money is to be given with δοῦναι (dounai, to give), a form of this verb.
metadidōmi: Share, impart.
μεταδίδωμι
This branch shows the same giving root in an act of sharing, while παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, hand over) makes the transfer a betrayal.
εὐκαίρως
eukairōs
GROWS FROM
καιρ-
kair-
A fitting or opportune time.
“at the right moment” in this verse is eukairōs. εὐκαίρως (eukairōs, at an opportune time) makes the search about timing: Judas looks for an opening where the handover can happen. The exchange is calculated down to its moment.
ALSO GROWS
kairos: A fitting time, season, or opportunity.
καιρός
This is the time Judas is looking for: a moment suited to the handover.
eukairia: A favorable opportunity.
εὐκαιρία
This related word names the usable opening Judas seeks.
THE PATTERN
Betrayal turns closeness into access, then searches for an opening to harm or hand a person over.
And the rulers of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Coax him, and see where his great strength lies, and with what we may overpower him, that we may bind him to bend him low. And we will give you, each of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.Even the man of my wholeness, upon whom I leaned my weight, eats my bread and lifts his heel against me.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.THE THREAD
I have been crucified with the Anointed One, and I live, yet no longer I; the Anointed One lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live in the trust of the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.Mark’s παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, hand over) and Galatians’ παραδόντος (paradontos, having handed over) are forms of the same Greek verb. The shared root brings two transfers into view: Judas hands Jesus over for a price, while Jesus gives himself for another.
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