What Does Mark 14:42 Mean?
Rise, let us go. Look, the one who hands me over has drawn near.
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
Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.THE KEY
The Greek verb παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, “hand over”) behind “betrayeth” also describes Jesus giving himself elsewhere.
THE MEANING
When betrayal feels close, this verse names its nearness without making it the whole scene. Movement remains present alongside the threat.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a betrayer’s approach cancels all agency: the verse names his nearness and still speaks of going.
THE ROOT
ὁ παραδιδούς
ho paradidous
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give; in παραδίδωμι, hand over.
English “betrayeth” points to treachery, while the Greek verb’s basic image is transfer: someone hands another over. The same verb can name a hostile handover or a giving of oneself, revealing the act at the center of this moment without erasing its betrayal.
ALSO GROWS
paradosis: A handing down; tradition.
παράδοσις
This noun carries the handover into what is transmitted from one person to another, showing that transfer itself does not determine whether an act is betrayal.
metadidōmi: Share; impart.
μεταδίδωμι
The same δίδωμι seed appears in a compound for sharing, opening the contrast between handing someone over and giving something to someone.
ἤγγικεν
ēngiken
GROWS FROM
ἐγγίζω
engizō
Draw near; approach.
“has drawn near” in this verse is ēngiken. The perfect form pictures nearness that has arrived and now holds: the betrayal is not merely on its way but already close. Its spatial force makes the threat concrete.
ALSO GROWS
engys: Near; close by.
ἐγγύς
This related word makes the shared idea of closeness plain: the betrayer is at the edge of the scene.
engizō: Draw near; approach.
ἐγγίζω
The verb family describes movement toward someone or something, giving “at hand” the force of an approach that has reached its destination.
ἐγείρεσθε
egeiresthe
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
Rouse; awaken; raise.
“Rise” in this verse is egeiresthe. The verb carries the sense of waking as well as rising, and the same word is used elsewhere for raising the dead. That life-bearing word stands beside “let us go,” placing rising and movement in the verse alongside the approaching betrayal.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: Wake; raise up.
ἐγείρω
The root itself joins awakening with being raised, adding depth to the command to rise.
egersis: Rising; resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This related noun uses the same seed for resurrection, showing how the language of rising reaches beyond standing up.
THE PATTERN
The handover verb can name betrayal, what is laid upon another, and the giving of oneself.
All of us like sheep have wandered; each has turned to his own way, and the LORD has caused the crookedness of us all to fall upon him.He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, how will he not also favor us with all things along with him?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.THE THREAD
He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, how will he not also favor us with all things along with him?The verb behind “betrayeth” is παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, “hand over”), the same verb rendered “delivered him up” here. Mark names a human betrayal; Romans uses the shared verb for God’s giving of the Son, letting the word hold those two directions of the handover together.
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