What Does Matthew 21:7 Mean?
They brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their cloaks upon them, and he sat upon them.
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 brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.THE KEY
The garments people wear become the covering beneath the king as he takes his seat.
THE MEANING
Honor takes tangible form: the animals are brought, garments are laid over them, and he takes his seat. The arrival is made from ordinary things and the hands that place them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a king’s arrival requires royal splendor: here, ordinary garments and animals make the scene.
THE ROOT
ἐπέθηκαν
epethēkan
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
to place, set, or lay down
“laid upon them” in this verse is epethēkan. The verb carries the sense of placing something upon something else. Here, garments move from their ordinary use as clothing to a new place on the animals, making honor through an act of placement.
ALSO GROWS
apotithēmi: lay aside; put off
ἀποτίθημι
It shares the root for placing, with the object set aside from its former position; here the garments likewise leave their usual place on the wearers.
prostithēmi: add; place alongside
προστίθημι
The same root describes placing something in addition to what is already there; the garments are set onto the animals as part of the arrival.
ἤγαγον
ēgagon
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
to lead, bring, or carry
“brought” in this verse is ēgagon. The verb makes the arrival a movement enacted by people: the animals are led into place before he takes his seat. Its word family keeps that movement visible in meanings such as gathering together and leading away.
ALSO GROWS
synagō: gather together
συνάγω
The compound joins the same movement-root to the sense of bringing together; here, people bring the animals into the scene.
apagō: lead away; carry away
ἀπάγω
This compound also preserves the act of leading, showing that the root concerns movement from one place to another.
THE PATTERN
A ruler’s arrival is publicly honored through ordinary things placed beneath or before him.
Then they hurried, and each took his garment and laid it under him on the bare steps, and blew the ram's horn, saying, Jehu is king.A very great crowd spread their cloaks in the way, and others cut down branches from the trees, and spread them in the way.THE THREAD
They twisted a crown of thorns and set it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. They bent the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Rejoice, King of the Jews!Matthew uses the same verb, ἐπιτίθημι (epitithēmi), for placing the garments on the animals here and the thorn crown on his head there. The welcoming scene finds a cruel mirror in the mock coronation: in both, what is placed upon or before him exposes how people treat their king.
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