What Does Mark 14:33 Mean?
And he took Peter and James and John with him, and he began to be shaken and distressed.
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 he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;THE KEY
Before his distress fills the scene, Jesus has already drawn three companions alongside him.
THE MEANING
Jesus brings Peter, James, and John alongside him, then becomes intensely alarmed and deeply distressed. His anguish is real in their presence; their closeness does not erase its weight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that deep distress is proof of weakness: the verse names Jesus’ anguish without diminishing him.
THE ROOT
παραλαμβάνει
paralambanei
GROWS FROM
λαμβ-
lamb-
To take or receive; παρά (para) adds the sense of alongside.
“taketh with him” in this verse is paralambanei. The English phrase can sound like simple travel, but παραλαμβάνει (paralambanei) means to take someone along or receive them alongside. Jesus brings his companions near before his distress takes hold in the scene.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: Take, receive.
λαμβάνω
The base word holds taking and receiving in one family, giving the act more depth than merely moving people from place to place.
paralambanō: Take along, receive alongside.
παραλαμβάνω
This is the verb in the verse: Peter, James, and John are brought alongside Jesus.
epilambanomai: Take hold of, seize.
ἐπιλαμβάνομαι
This related compound carries the family’s sense of grasping and nearness.
ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι
ekthambeisthai
GROWS FROM
θαμβ-
thamb-
Astonishment; being struck with amazement.
“sore amazed” in this verse is ekthambeisthai. The compound ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι (ekthambeisthai) intensifies the family sense of θάμβος (thambos, astonishment) into alarmed overwhelm. English “amazed” can sound admiring, while this scene holds shock and distress.
ALSO GROWS
thambos: Amazement, astonishment.
θάμβος
The noun names the root experience that the verse’s verb intensifies.
thambeō: Be astonished, be struck with amazement.
θαμβέω
This related verb shows the family describing a reaction that overtakes a person.
ekthambeomai: Be greatly astonished or alarmed.
ἐκθαμβέομαι
This compound form carries the intensified shock present in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Anguish can be named in full while nearness and companionship remain present.
The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping with her, he snorted in his breath and was stirred within himself.For we do not have a high priest who cannot suffer alongside our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every way as we are, apart from falling short.THE THREAD
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be pained and very unsettled.Matthew uses the same Greek verb, ἀδημονεῖν (adēmonīn, to be deeply distressed), for “very heavy” and likewise places Peter and the sons of Zebedee beside Jesus. The repeated word joins their nearness to anguish named plainly.
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