What Does Mark 14:27 Mean?
And Jesus said to them, All of you will stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.
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 Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.THE KEY
The verse links inward stumbling to outward scattering: when the shepherd is struck, the flock loses its footing together.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you when the one who gathers a group is struck and those gathered lose their footing and scatter. Here, being offended carries the sense of stumbling, so the rupture reaches both the individual and the bond between the group.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that closeness to Jesus guarantees unshaken courage gives way here: Jesus says all of them will stumble when the shepherd is struck.
THE ROOT
σκανδαλισθήσεσθε
skandalisthēsesthe
GROWS FROM
σκάνδαλον
skandalon
snare, trap, or stumbling block
The Greek carries the sense of being caught or caused to stumble, beyond hurt feelings alone. The blow to the shepherd becomes the snare in which the disciples lose their footing.
ALSO GROWS
skandalon: a snare or stumbling block
σκάνδαλον
It shows that the disciples’ coming failure is pictured as a loss of footing.
skandalizō: to cause to stumble or ensnare
σκανδαλίζω
This is the verb behind offended and ties their stumbling directly to the night’s events.
הַךְ
hakh
GROWS FROM
נכה
nakah
to strike or smite
The Hebrew word in the quoted line names a strike against the shepherd; the next image is the scattering of the sheep. The verse holds the blow to one at the center beside the dispersal of the whole flock.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: to strike or smite
נָכָה
This verb names the action that sets the scattering in motion.
makkah: a blow or plague
מַכָּה
The related noun gives the strike the sense of an impact, not merely a change in the shepherd’s position.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
yasha
to deliver, bringing out of constriction into spaciousness
“Jesus” in this verse is Yeshua. The name carries deliverance within it. Here it stands beside the striking of the shepherd and the scattering of the flock, holding the nature of deliverance inside a night of disruption.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: to deliver or rescue
יָשַׁע
The verb carries the action held in the name Jesus.
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
The related noun shows the deliverance carried in the name even as the verse names the coming rupture.
THE PATTERN
When the shepherd is struck, absent, or abandons the flock, the sheep lose their cohesion and scatter.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man at my side, says the LORD of hosts; strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.They were scattered, because there is no shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field, when they were scattered.But the hired hand, who is not the shepherd, and whose sheep they are not, sees the wolf coming, and lets go of the sheep, and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them.THE THREAD
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man at my side, says the LORD of hosts; strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.Mark quotes this verse directly: Hebrew הַךְ (hakh, “strike”) names the blow that precedes the flock’s scattering. The quotation lets the disciples’ stumble read as part of the same rupture that scatters the sheep.
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