What Does Matthew 26:10 Mean?

When Jesus perceived it, he said to them, Why do you weary the woman? For she has wrought a good work upon me.

Matthew 26:10 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.

THE KEY

Jesus overturns the onlookers’ label in one reply: what they call trouble, he recognizes as good work.

THE MEANING

An offering that others call a disturbance can still be good work in the eyes of the one who receives it. Jesus sees the woman’s act as meaningful in relation to him, not as trouble imposed on the room. The verse holds both readings together and lets the act’s purpose come into view.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that an act becomes wasteful or wrong merely because it inconveniences the people watching.

THE ROOT

ἔργον

érgon

GROWS FROM

ἐργ

⁨ἐργ⁩ (erg): work, deed, a task carried into action

Greek repeats one seed in both the noun ⁨ἔργον⁩ (érgon, work) and the verb ⁨ἠργάσατο⁩ (ērgásato, she worked): what she does and what her act is called are joined. The phrase ⁨καλὸν ἔργον⁩ (kalòn érgon, good or beautiful work) presents value as something carried by her concrete action.

ALSO GROWS

ergázomai: to work, do, accomplish

ἐργάζομαι

The verb names the action that brings a work about; in this verse, ⁨ἠργάσατο⁩ (ērgásato, she worked) uses this same family.

ergátēs: worker, laborer

ἐργάτης

This branch names the one who works, keeping the root tied to an agent and an enacted deed rather than an abstract idea.

THE PATTERN

The worth of an act is not settled by appearances or by the burden others assign it; its meaning can be revealed by what it serves.

But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7 · SDVThe visible impression does not settle a person’s worth; what is seen at the heart changes the judgment.

But much more those limbs of the body that seem to be weaker are needed.

1 Corinthians 12:22 · SDVWhat appears weak or secondary can carry real necessity that an observer misses.

But Jesus said, Release her. Why do you weary her? She has worked a beautiful work toward me.

Mark 14:6 · SDVJesus names the same act the onlookers call trouble as good work.

THE THREAD

For we are his making, created in the Anointed One, Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that in them we might walk.

Ephesians 2:10 · SDV

The Greek root ⁨ἐργ⁩ (erg) appears in both ⁨ἔργον⁩, the good work Jesus names here, and the “good works” of Ephesians 2:10. There, good work is something prepared to be walked in; here, Jesus recognizes a particular deed as good.

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