What Does Mark 15:43 Mean?
Joseph of Arimathea, a council member of good bearing, who also himself waited for the governance of God, came, and gathered himself and went in to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.
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
Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.THE KEY
Joseph’s waiting for God’s governance is a posture of receiving that becomes an act: he approaches Pilate and asks for Jesus’ body.
THE MEANING
God’s governance is something you can await while authority still has power over a body. Joseph’s expectation does not keep him at a distance: he goes before Pilate and asks for Jesus’ body. The verse holds expectation and embodied action in the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Waiting for God’s governance means staying passive until power becomes harmless.
THE ROOT
προσδεχόμενος
prosdechomenos
GROWS FROM
δεχ (dech-), the stem in δέχομαι (dechomai)
Receive, accept, welcome.
The word is προσδέχομαι (prosdechomai, await or receive expectantly), formed with πρός (pros, toward) and δέχομαι (dechomai, receive or welcome). English “waited for” can hide this posture of reception: Joseph welcomes the expectation of God’s reign even as he acts in the present.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: Receive, accept, welcome.
δέχομαι
This is the base stem in Joseph’s word for waiting, keeping reception inside the expectation.
ekdechomai: Await, expect, look for.
ἐκδέχομαι
This related form also joins expectation to waiting, showing how the same root can carry both meanings.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver, rescue; bring out from constriction into spaciousness.
The English name “Jesus” conceals the content carried by Yeshua: deliverance from constriction into spaciousness. Joseph asks for this one’s body, so the name’s promise stands beside bodily death without replacing its reality.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: Deliver, rescue, bring out.
יָשַׁע
The verb gives the name its movement toward deliverance.
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun makes visible the deliverance held inside the name Yeshua.
THE PATTERN
Waiting for God’s promise is an active openness that gives hope a present direction.
But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.And look, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was aligned and reverent, awaiting the comfort of Israel, and the Set-Apart Breath was upon him.Watching for the flourishing hope and the shining of the weight of our great God and Deliverer, Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And look, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was aligned and reverent, awaiting the comfort of Israel, and the Set-Apart Breath was upon him.Luke uses the same Greek verb προσδέχομαι (prosdechomai, await or receive expectantly) for Simeon waiting for Israel’s consolation. Simeon’s name reaches back to שִׁמְעוֹן (Shim’on, “heard”), bringing hearing alongside the posture of receiving. Mark and Luke bind expectation to what is arriving while keeping the waiting person present to the moment.
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