What Does Mark 15:15 Mean?
And so Pilate, wanting to make enough for the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and handed Jesus over, after he had lashed him, to be crucified.
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 so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.THE KEY
Pilate releases one man while handing another over to violence, with the crowd’s satisfaction setting the terms of justice.
THE MEANING
Public approval becomes the measure of judgment: Pilate releases Barabbas, then hands Jesus over to be scourged and crucified. Freedom for one stands beside violence against another. The verse shows how appeasement transfers its cost onto the person given over.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that keeping the crowd satisfied is neutral: Pilate’s appeasement is a choice that sends violence toward Jesus.
THE ROOT
ἀπέλυσεν
apelysen
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
To loosen, untie, or release.
The verb translated “released” carries the sense of loosening or letting go. Barabbas is named as being unbound, and that freedom is set beside Jesus being handed over.
ALSO GROWS
apolýō: To release or dismiss.
ἀπολύω
This is the verb form behind “released,” naming Barabbas’s release as a letting go.
lýsis: A loosening or release.
λύσις
The noun preserves the same image of something being loosened from its hold.
katalýō: To loosen, dismantle, or bring down.
καταλύω
This branch shows how loosening can extend from freeing someone to undoing what holds something together.
παρέδωκεν
paredōken
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give; in παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi), to hand over or deliver.
“handed Jesus over” in this verse is paredōken. The verb παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi, “hand over”) is built from δίδωμι (didōmi, “give”) with παρά (pará, “over” or “beside”). Pilate does not merely stop protecting Jesus; he gives him over to scourging and crucifixion, making this an active choice.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give or grant.
δίδωμι
This is the giving-root inside “delivered,” showing the handover as an act of giving Jesus into another course of action.
paradídōmi: To hand over or deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used for Pilate’s act, set in sharp contrast with the loosening that releases Barabbas.
metadídōmi: To share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
From the same give-root, this branch shows giving as sharing; here, giving over instead places Jesus into the path of violence.
THE PATTERN
When those in power make public approval their aim, justice becomes negotiable and someone bears the cost.
From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.For now, do I persuade people or God? Or do I seek to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of the Anointed One.The trembling of man sets a snare, but the one who leans his full weight on the LORD is set on high.THE THREAD
Who was handed over for our stumbles, and raised for our alignment.Mark’s “delivered” is παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi, “hand over”); Romans 4:25 uses the same verb for Jesus being handed over. Romans then sets that handover beside resurrection, extending the thread beyond Pilate’s sentence.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us