What Does Mark 6:21 Mean?

And when a well-timed day came, Herod made a supper on his birthday for his great ones, for the leaders of a thousand, and for the first ones of Galilee.

Mark 6:21 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;

THE KEY

Mark uses this same Greek word family again for Judas’s search for a convenient moment to betray Jesus, showing how an occasion can become an opening for intent.

THE MEANING

A fitting occasion gathers Herod’s rank and influence around one table. The day’s convenience gives what follows an opening; celebration and power can share the same room with an irreversible choice.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The false belief is that a festive setting or a convenient moment makes the act that follows harmless.

THE ROOT

εὐκαίρου

eukairou

GROWS FROM

καιρ-

kair-

A fitting season or moment of opportunity.

“well-timed” in this verse is eukairou. ⁨εὔκαιρος⁩ (eukairos, opportune or fitting) joins ⁨εὖ⁩ (eu, well) with ⁨καιρός⁩ (kairos, a fitting time or decisive occasion). Here, “convenient” carries the added sense of a favorable opening: the timing makes action possible.

ALSO GROWS

kairos: A fitting time, season, or decisive occasion.

καιρός

This is the stem within ⁨εὔκαιρος⁩; the day is marked as a moment suited to what is about to happen.

eukairia: A favorable opportunity or opening.

εὐκαιρία

This noun makes the opportunity shade explicit: an occasion can offer room for an intended act.

akairos: Untimely, out of season.

ἄκαιρος

The same ⁨καιρ-⁩ stem appears with a negating prefix, showing the contrast between an opening that is well-timed and one that is not.

THE PATTERN

A moment’s timing shapes the opening through which an action can take effect.

And it came to pass on the third day, which was the day of Pharaoh's birth, that he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and of the chief baker among his servants.

Genesis 40:20 · SDVThe birthday feast gathers the court, and decisions about two servants make the occasion decisive.

When the Slanderer had ended every testing, he stepped away from him until a fitting time.

Luke 4:13 · SDVThe adversary withdraws until another season, treating timing as part of how temptation returns.

Herald the word; stand by it in season and out of season; expose, rebuke, and urge, with all slowness to heat and teaching.

2 Timothy 4:2 · SDVThe word’s work is called for in season and out of season, showing that timing shapes an opening without determining an action’s character.

THE THREAD

And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him silver. And he sought how he might hand him over at the right moment.

Mark 14:11 · SDV

The word rendered “conveniently” is ⁨εὐκαίρως⁩ (eukairos, at an opportune time), from the same ⁨καιρ-⁩ (kair-, fitting occasion) stem as “convenient day” here. Mark uses that shared root for Judas’s search for an opening to hand Jesus over, showing how the occasion gains its direction from the intention meeting it.

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