What Does Mark 14:47 Mean?
One of those standing near drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
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 one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.THE KEY
The first wound falls on a man identified only through his service to the high priest, while the sword-bearer goes unnamed.
THE MEANING
Here force becomes immediate bodily loss: a sword strikes the high priest’s servant and takes away his ear. The wounded man is identified through his place in the high priest’s household, while the striker remains unnamed and the text leaves his motive unstated.
THE ROOT
δοῦλον
doulon
GROWS FROM
δουλ-
doul-
Bondage or service under another.
“servant” in this verse is doulon. The Greek word belongs to a family that carries the weight of bondage and subordination. The wound falls on a man marked by his relation to the high priest, while the verse withholds his personal name.
ALSO GROWS
douleuō: To serve as a slave.
δουλεύω
This verb keeps the bondservice within the same word family as the servant struck here.
douleia: Slavery, bondage.
δουλεία
This noun makes explicit the subordinate status carried in the word family.
ἀφεῖλεν
apheilen
GROWS FROM
ἀφαιρέω
aphaireō
To take away or remove.
Alongside the concrete force of “cut off,” the Greek verb carries the sense “take away” or “remove,” keeping the ear’s absence in view. The blow is both a cut and a taking-away from the servant’s body.
ALSO GROWS
haireō: To take, seize, or choose.
αἱρέω
This verb is the base of the compound used for taking something away.
aphairesis: Removal, taking away.
ἀφαίρεσις
This noun shares the compound family and makes the sense of removal explicit.
μάχαιρα
machaira
GROWS FROM
μάχ-
mach-
Battle or fighting.
“sword” in this verse is machaira. The Greek word belongs to the family of battle and fighting, keeping the weapon close to the conflict it enacts. Here that conflict lands immediately on a servant’s body.
ALSO GROWS
machē: Battle, fight.
μάχη
This related noun names the combat carried by the sword’s word family.
machomai: To fight, contend.
μάχομαι
This related verb makes the action of combat explicit within the same family.
THE PATTERN
When conflict is answered with a weapon, the body nearest its force bears the cost.
And it came to pass on the third day, when they ached, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.Then Jesus said to him, Turn your sword back to its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.Jesus answered and said, Let it be this far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said, Let it be this far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.Mark’s ὠτάριον (ōtarion, “ear”) and Luke’s ὠτίον (ōtion, “ear”) belong to the same Greek word family. Mark records the ear’s removal; Luke continues the scene with Jesus touching and healing that same ear.
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