What Does Mark 14:46 Mean?
They laid hands on him and seized him.
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 they laid their hands on him, and took him.THE KEY
A touch becomes seizure: they cast their hands onto him, then hold him fast.
THE MEANING
You meet force here in its most physical form: hands land on a body, then a grip holds him. The verse names capture plainly, as contact becoming control.
THE ROOT
ἐκράτησαν
ekratēsan
GROWS FROM
κρατ-
krat-
Strength or power expressed through holding fast.
“seized him” in this verse is ekratēsan. The Greek verb κρατέω (krateō, to hold fast or seize) makes the force in “took” concrete: this is a strong grip, not a neutral change of possession. Paired with hands laid upon him, the words trace capture from contact to control.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: Strength, might, power.
κράτος
The related noun gives the seizure its force: the grip carries power over the person held.
enkratēs: Having mastery or self-control.
ἐγκρατής
The same strength-family can describe mastery; here, that power is exercised by one person over another.
ἐπέβαλον
epébalon
GROWS FROM
βαλλ-
ball-
To throw, cast, or put.
The verb ἐπιβάλλω (epiballō, to cast or lay upon) carries the image of hands being put onto him with force. English “laid” can sound gentle; the Greek keeps the motion of something cast onto a body.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: Throw, cast, or put.
βάλλω
This base verb supplies the physical motion beneath “laid”: the hands are cast onto him.
ekballō: Cast out or drive out.
ἐκβάλλω
The same root presents force as motion imposed on a body; here the hands are cast onto him before the grip closes.
THE PATTERN
Capture turns bodily contact into control.
And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who settled in Sodom, and his goods, and went away.Then the coiled band, and the commander of a thousand, and the attendants of the Judeans seized Jesus and bound him.And when he had taken hold of him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to lead him up before the people.THE THREAD
Day by day I was with you in the temple, teaching, and you did not seize me. But the writings must be filled.The word translated “took” is the same Greek verb, κρατέω (krateō, to hold fast or seize). The earlier refusal to seize him now gives way to the hands and grip described in this verse.
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