What Does Mark 15:9 Mean?
But Pilate answered them, saying, Do you want me to release the King of the Jews to you?
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 Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?THE KEY
Here kingship is spoken aloud while release is still a question.
THE MEANING
Release enters as a question: the one called King stands in the same sentence as the possibility of being set free. The title is clear; the choice remains open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A title does not ensure recognition: the King can be named while his freedom remains a question.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύσω
apolýsō
GROWS FROM
λύω
luō
To loosen or untie.
The verb ἀπολύσω (apolýsō), “I release,” belongs to ἀπολύω (apolýō): apo (“away”) joined to λύω (luō), “loosen.” Mark’s word λύτρον (lýtron), “ransom,” shares this word family, connecting release with the price of setting someone free.
ALSO GROWS
luō: To loosen, untie.
λύω
This base verb makes release concrete: a bond or hold is loosened.
apolýō: To release, send away, or dismiss.
ἀπολύω
The verse’s verb adds “away” to “loosen,” picturing release as loosening someone from a hold.
lýtron: Ransom; a price given for release.
λύτρον
Mark uses this related word when the Son of Man gives his life as a ransom, joining release with the cost of freeing many.
THE PATTERN
A choice about release reveals what a person recognizes as freedom.
The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.But you turned away from the Set-Apart One and the Aligned One, and you asked for a man of blood to be given to you as favor.So if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.THE THREAD
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his living soul as a ransom for many.The word “ransom” is λύτρον (lýtron), from the same word family as λύω (luō), “loosen,” at the heart of “release.” Mark connects the question of letting the King go with the Son of Man giving his life as the means of release for many.
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