What Does Matthew 18:34 Mean?
And his lord swelled with anger and handed him over to the tormentors, until he should give back all that was owed to him.
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 his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.THE KEY
In Greek, the man is “handed over” and must “pay back” with two forms built from the same verb, δίδωμι (didōmi): give.
THE MEANING
The lord’s anger becomes a concrete act: the debtor is handed to tormentors until the full amount is paid. Here, debt reaches the body, and the torment continues for as long as the claim remains unpaid.
THE ROOT
παρέδωκεν
paredōken
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give, grant, or hand over.
“delivered / pay” in this verse is paredōken. “Delivered” and “pay” sound like separate actions in English, but both Greek forms grow from δίδωμι, “give.” The verse joins the act of handing the debtor over to torment with the demand that he give back everything owed.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: Hand over, deliver; in some contexts, betray.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “delivered”: the debtor is given over into the tormentors’ hands.
apodidōmi: Give back, render, repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
This compound appears in the demand to pay what is owed: repayment is framed as giving back.
didōmi: Give, grant, place into someone’s hands.
δίδωμι
The shared base makes the handover and the demanded repayment two forms of giving within the same sentence.
THE PATTERN
An unpaid debt can keep a person under another’s power until the claim is settled or released.
Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant, my husband, is dead. You know that your servant stood in awe of the LORD. And the creditor has come to take my two sons to be his bonded servants.And this is the word of the release. Every one whose hand has lent to his neighbor shall let it fall, and he shall not press it from his neighbor or from his brother, for it is called the LORD's release.For as you go with your opponent before the ruler, while you are on the road, labor to be released from him, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the enforcer, and the enforcer throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not come out from there until you give back even the last thin coin.THE THREAD
Then he released Barabbas for them, and after he had whipped Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.The Greek verb παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), “hand over,” appears in both verses: the debtor is handed to tormentors here, and Jesus is handed over after scourging there. The shared verb keeps “delivered” concrete, a person placed in another’s power, with bodily consequences.
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