What Does Matthew 20:19 Mean?
And they will hand him over to the nations to mock him, and to whip him, and to crucify him. And on the third day he will be raised.
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 shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.THE KEY
After every act done to Jesus, the sentence ends with what is done for him: he is raised.
THE MEANING
Mockery, scourging, and crucifixion remain as severe as the words say; the verse does not soften them. It speaks to you now with a different ending: the one handed over is raised on the third day, so violence does not own the final word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that the people who control the violence also control the ending.
THE ROOT
ἐγερθήσεται
egerthēsetai
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
to wake, rouse, or raise
The Greek form is passive: he will be raised, though this sentence leaves the raiser unnamed. This word family also speaks of waking and resurrection, so the final movement is life received beyond death.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: to wake, rouse, or raise
ἐγείρω
The same verb can describe waking someone and raising the dead; resurrection carries the force of awakening.
egersis: a raising; resurrection
ἔγερσις
Matthew 27:53 uses this related noun for the raising of holy ones, letting the same word family name the event itself.
παραδώσουσιν
paradōsousin
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give, set, or place
“deliver” in this verse is paradōsousin. Here the verb means to hand Jesus over, carrying the concrete sense of a transfer. That handoff is the first link in the chain of mockery, scourging, and crucifixion named next.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: to give, set, or place
δίδωμι
This base word makes the act of handing over visible as a giving into another’s hands.
paradidōmi: to hand over or deliver
παραδίδωμι
This related verb names the transfer that begins the sequence of violence in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can name death plainly while leaving room for God’s raising to open what comes next.
I do not die, but live, and recount the works of the LORD.God raised him up, having loosed the labor pangs of death, for it was not possible for him to be held by it.But now the Anointed One has been awakened from the dead, and has become the first portion of those who have lain down to sleep.THE THREAD
And that he was buried, and that he has been awakened on the third day according to the writings.The Greek uses the same raising root as Matthew’s final verb, and repeats the third-day phrase. What Matthew announces becomes the resurrection proclamation here.
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