What Does Mark 14:24 Mean?

And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many.

Mark 14:24 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.

THE KEY

The word rendered “shed” pictures blood being poured out, so the covenant is bound to life given outward for many.

THE MEANING

This covenant reaches you as life poured out, not as an abstract promise. Its scope is “for many,” placing you within a bond carried by costly, embodied giving. The verse makes that giving present and tangible.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the idea that covenant is only a spoken agreement: here the bond is carried in poured-out life.

THE ROOT

διαθήκης

diathēkēs

GROWS FROM

τίθημι

tithēmi

“Set” or “place”; through ⁨διατίθημι⁩ (diatithēmi), the word family carries the sense of arranging or establishing.

The Greek word rendered “testament” is ⁨διαθήκη⁩ (diathēkē), also meaning “covenant.” Its family ties the bond to something arranged and established, giving “new covenant” more weight than a detached promise.

ALSO GROWS

diatithēmi: Arrange, establish, make a covenant

διατίθημι

This verb belongs to the same word family and shows covenant as an established bond.

diathesis: Arrangement, disposition

διάθεσις

The related word carries the sense of something set in order, echoing the covenant’s established form.

ἐκχυννόμενον

ekchynnomenon

GROWS FROM

χέω

cheō

Pour; the compound form means “pour out.”

The Greek participle pictures the blood as being poured out, keeping the image physical and in motion. Joined to “for many,” the verb gives the covenant an outward reach: life poured forth on behalf of others.

ALSO GROWS

ekcheō: Pour out

ἐκχέω

This compound carries the same pouring-out image present in Mark’s word for “shed.”

katacheō: Pour down, pour over

καταχέω

This related compound preserves the physical image of liquid flowing over a surface.

THE PATTERN

Scripture presents blood as life, making covenant and release tangible through life poured out.

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has cut with you concerning all these words.

Exodus 24:8 · SDVBlood marks the covenant as a bond made tangible among the people.

For the living soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make a covering for your living souls, for it is the blood that covers the living soul.

Leviticus 17:11 · SDVThe verse names the connection between blood and life that gives the image of poured-out blood its weight.

And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.

Hebrews 9:22 · SDVBlood is joined to release, extending the pattern from covenant into the letting go of what stands against a person.

THE THREAD

Hence not even the first covenant has been made new without blood.

Hebrews 9:18 · SDV

“Testament” here is the same Greek word, ⁨διαθήκη⁩ (diathēkē), meaning “covenant,” found in Mark. Hebrews ties that covenant word to blood at its dedication, opening Mark’s image of a bond established through poured-out life.

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