What Does Mark 15:23 Mean?
And they gave him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he did not take hold of it.
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 gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.THE KEY
The verse separates what is offered from what is taken in: the cup reaches him, but he does not receive it.
THE MEANING
An offer can be present without being received. Here, wine mixed with myrrh is given to Jesus, but he does not take it; the giver’s action and the receiver’s action remain distinct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that an offer has already been accepted simply because it is placed within reach.
THE ROOT
ἔλαβεν
elaben
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
To take, receive, or lay hold of.
“take hold of” in this verse is elaben. The Greek verb keeps an act of taking at the center: the cup’s presence at his lips is not the same as its being received. The offer does not become reception by arriving.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: To take, receive, or obtain.
λαμβάνω
This is the verb behind the refusal: what is offered is not necessarily taken in.
paralambanō: To receive or take along.
παραλαμβάνω
This compound appears in John 1:11, where his own do not receive him, extending the same taking-language from a cup to a person.
katalambanō: To seize, grasp, or comprehend.
καταλαμβάνω
This branch makes the root’s active sense clear: receiving involves taking hold, not merely being near what is offered.
ἔδωκαν
edōkan
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give, grant, or put into another’s hands.
“gave” in this verse is edōkan. The same give-family reaches from an offered drink to a handover: in Mark 15:15, Pilate ‘delivered’ Jesus, using παραδίδωμι, a compound of this root. The small act of giving the cup sits within the larger act of giving him over.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: To hand over or deliver up.
παραδίδωμι
Mark 15:15 uses this compound when Pilate delivers Jesus to be crucified, linking the chapter’s giving language with the handover.
metadidōmi: To share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
This branch shows the give-family can name what passes from one person to another, including provision.
THE PATTERN
An offer does not enter a life by arriving; receiving or refusing remains a distinct act.
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.He came to his own, and his own did not take him in.For if through the stumble of one man death reigned through one, much more those who take hold of the overflow of favor and of the gift of alignment will reign in life through one, Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
He came to his own, and his own did not take him in.John’s ‘received’ comes from the same Greek root as Mark’s ‘received,’ with a compound meaning ‘receive’ or ‘take along.’ Mark shows a cup offered to Jesus and left untaken; John uses that same taking-language for a person who arrives and is not received.
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