What Does Mark 14:71 Mean?
But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I do not know this man you are speaking of.
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
But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.THE KEY
Fear can turn a denial of knowing into a performance that tries to make the distance binding.
THE MEANING
Under pressure, the speaker denies knowing the man, then reinforces the denial with a curse and an oath. The words try to make the separation sound absolute. The verse shows fear recruiting speech to protect the self, even when the claim cannot make the truth disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that stronger words can erase what is true. The oath makes the denial louder, not truer.
THE ROOT
ἀναθεματίζειν
anathematizein
GROWS FROM
ἀνάθεμα
To set something apart or dedicate it; the word family also carries the sense of placing something under a ban.
The Greek word for “curse” belongs to a family that joins dedication with banishment. Here, the denial is intensified by language that tries to put a hard boundary between the speaker and the man he disowns.
ALSO GROWS
anathema: A thing dedicated or placed under a ban; later, a curse.
ἀνάθεμα
This noun is the source of the verb in the verse, giving the curse the force of an invoked ban.
anatithēmi: To set forth, lay before, or dedicate.
ἀνατίθημι
This related verb preserves the sense of setting something apart, which helps illuminate how dedication language can develop into ban-language.
οἶδα
oida
GROWS FROM
ϝειδ-
To see or perceive, and from that, to know.
The word for “know” carries an old connection between knowing and seeing. The denial therefore has a perceptual edge: the speaker claims not to recognize the man, as well as refusing association with him.
ALSO GROWS
eidon: I saw; a form in the Greek see-word family.
εἶδον
It keeps sight and knowing close within the same word family.
eidos: Form or visible appearance.
εἶδος
What is seen and what is known share this root family, adding a shade of recognition to the denial.
THE PATTERN
Fear of people can narrow self-protection into denial and evasion.
And the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?The trembling of man sets a snare, but the one who leans his full weight on the LORD is set on high.Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, Are you not also one of his disciples? He denied it and said, I am not.THE THREAD
Before all things, my brethren, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no, lest you fall under judgment.Mark’s “swear” comes from ὀμνύω (omnyō, to swear an oath), the same Greek verb used in James. James places plain yes and no beside oath-taking, making Peter’s added oath visible as an attempt to give his denial extra force.
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