What Does Matthew 20:18 Mean?
Look, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the ruling priests and to the letter-writers, and they will judge him down to death.
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
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,THE KEY
The ascent toward Jerusalem, the city named with wholeness, already contains a handover and a death verdict.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the ascent toward wholeness beside a transfer of custody and a death sentence; the violence stays visible. The Son of Man is handed to religious authorities who judge him and sentence him to die. For you now, the upward path does not make the violence met along it disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that moving toward wholeness guarantees protection from betrayal and death.
THE ROOT
παραδοθήσεται
paradothēsetai
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant; with παρά (para, over or across), the compound carries the sense of handing someone over.
“handed over” in this verse is paradothēsetai. The verb translated “betrayed” also carries the concrete movement of handing someone over. Here that transfer leads directly to the authorities who judge him: custody passes before the death sentence is spoken.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: Hand over, deliver into another’s custody.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verse’s verb: the Son of Man is transferred to the chief priests and scribes.
metadidōmi: Share, impart.
μεταδίδωμι
The same giving-root can describe sharing something with another; here the giving over instead places a person in others’ power.
apodidōmi: Give back, repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
This branch keeps the act of giving visible, clarifying how the verse’s compound names a transfer.
κατακρινοῦσιν
katakrinousin
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To judge or decide; κατακρίνω means to judge against, condemn.
“judge him down to death” in this verse is katakrinousin. Condemnation here is an explicit judgment, not an unnamed force: the authorities decide against him and name death as the outcome. The shared κρίνω (krinō, judge or decide) family makes the verdict itself visible in the sentence.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: Judge, decide.
κρίνω
The verse’s condemnation is a judgment made by people with authority.
krisis: Judgment, decision.
κρίσις
This branch shows condemnation as a verdict with a definite outcome.
kritēs: Judge.
κριτής
It points to the agents behind the sentence: those who judge him.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, sound.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The Hebrew name Yerushalayim carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) and its dual ending. The verse sets that name beside a handover and a death verdict: wholeness is the direction named, while the violence met along the path remains explicit.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
It gives the city’s name its echo of wholeness, sharpening the contrast with the death sentence in the same verse.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch of שׁלם (sh-l-m) carries the sense of completeness within the destination’s name.
shillem: Repay, make restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
It shows the root’s reach into restoring what is owed or made lacking, beside the verse’s stark account of judgment.
THE PATTERN
A handover moves a person into others’ power, where judgment can turn that transfer toward death.
He was taken from confinement and from judgment. Who shall speak of his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living, struck for the rebellion of my people.Then he released Barabbas for them, and after he had whipped Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.Who was handed over for our stumbles, and raised for our alignment.THE THREAD
They answered and said to him, If this man were not one doing what is bad, we would not have handed him over to you.John uses the same verb, παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, hand over): here the leaders themselves say they have handed Jesus to Pilate. The current verse’s “betrayed unto” opens as a transfer of custody, with accusation attached to the person being passed on.
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