What Does Mark 14:26 Mean?
When they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.
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 had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.THE KEY
The hymn is not the scene’s ending; it is the sound they carry as they step into what comes next.
THE MEANING
Their hymn ends, and the group moves together toward the Mount of Olives. The verse holds praise and departure in the same movement: singing accompanies them into the next threshold.
THE ROOT
ἐξῆλθον
exēlthon
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
To come or go; with ἐκ (ek, out), it becomes ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai), to go out.
“went out” in this verse is exēlthon. The Greek verb joins outward movement to the basic idea of coming and going. The hymn and the departure are one unfolding action: they sing, then move outward together toward the Mount of Olives.
ALSO GROWS
exerchomai: To move outward or depart.
ἐξέρχομαι
This is the compound verb behind “went out”; ἐκ (ek, out) gives their movement its direction.
eiserchomai: To go in or enter.
εἰσέρχομαι
The same verb family can describe movement inward; its prefix changes the direction of the movement.
proserchomai: To come toward or draw near.
προσέρχομαι
Here too the same verb family describes movement, while the prefix marks the movement as an approach.
THE PATTERN
Praise accompanies people across thresholds and continues into the movement that follows.
And when he had consulted with the people, he set singers standing before the LORD, praising in the adornment of the set-apart, as they went out before the army, saying, Praise the LORD, for his faithful love endures for the ages.In the middle of the night Paul and Silas prayed and sang praise to God, and the prisoners listened to them.Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, I will sing to the LORD, for he has risen high, risen high; horse and rider he has hurled into the sea.THE THREAD
And they came to a field named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, Sit here while I pray.“Went out” uses ἐξῆλθον (exēlthon), from ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai, go out), built on ἔρχομαι (erchomai, come or go). In the next verse, ἔρχονται (erchontai, they come) carries that same verb into their arrival at Gethsemane: the outward movement of the hymn leads into the garden.
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