What Does Matthew 14:3 Mean?
For Herod had seized John and bound him, and set him away in the guardhouse for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.
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
For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife.THE KEY
The verse traces a ruler’s power from a grasp to binding to a guarded place, making custody the shape his authority takes.
THE MEANING
Here, personal interest backed by authority becomes physical confinement: John is seized, bound, and held in prison. Herod acts for Herodias, while the mention of Philip keeps the relationship at the center of the act of custody.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that authority acts impartially here: the confinement serves Herodias’s interest.
THE ROOT
ἐκράτησεν
ekratēsen
GROWS FROM
κρατ-
krat-
Strength, might, or power; the verb carries the sense of taking hold with force or exercising power over.
“seized” in this verse is ekratēsen. The wording reaches beyond a neutral grasp: John is taken into someone else’s power. The next actions, binding and confinement, show what that power does to him.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: Might, strength, power.
κράτος
This noun makes the force within “laid hold” audible: Herod’s authority is exercised over John’s body.
krataios: Strong, mighty.
κραταιός
This related word shares the strength-bearing stem, sharpening the sense of a forceful seizure.
δέω
deō
GROWS FROM
δε-
de-
To tie or fasten; to bind.
“bound” in this verse is deō. The binding is a literal restraint, and its word-family also names bonds and people held by them. The English sequence carries the same physical movement: a person is seized, tied, then confined.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: A bond or chain.
δεσμός
The bond is the restraint made visible in John’s binding.
desmios: A prisoner, or one who is bound.
δέσμιος
This branch names a person through the condition John now occupies.
φυλακή
phylakē
GROWS FROM
φυλακ-/φυλασσ- (phylak-/phylass-)
Guarding, watching, or keeping; φυλακή can mean a watch or guard, and also a prison.
“set him away in the guardhouse” in this verse is phylakē. The prison word belongs to the language of guarding and keeping watch. Confinement here is maintained custody: John is not merely placed somewhere, but held under watch.
ALSO GROWS
phylassō: To guard, watch, or keep.
φυλάσσω
This verb shows the guarding sense within the word-family of φυλακή, the prison where John is kept.
phylax: A guard or watcher.
φύλαξ
The related noun names the keeper who sustains the custody described by the prison word.
THE PATTERN
Power turns seizure and restraint into guarded confinement.
And Joseph's master took him, and placed him in the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound; and there he was in the prison.And the princes were angry with Jeremiah and struck him, and set him in the house of restraint, in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that house into a house of restraint.And when he had taken hold of him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to lead him up before the people.THE THREAD
And when he had taken hold of him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to lead him up before the people.Both verses use φυλακή (phylakē), meaning prison or a place of guarding. Acts makes the guarded dimension explicit through the soldiers assigned to keep Peter, opening John’s confinement as controlled custody.
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