What Does Matthew 26:13 Mean?
Truly, I say to you, wherever this good news is heralded in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman has done, be told for a memorial of her.
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
Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.THE KEY
The message that goes to the whole world carries a woman’s deed inside it.
THE MEANING
Wherever the good news is proclaimed, this woman’s act is told with it as a remembrance of her. Her deed travels within the message rather than disappearing behind it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that her act can be left out of the public message is undone: its telling travels with the gospel.
THE ROOT
μνημόσυνον
mnēmosynon
GROWS FROM
μιμνήσκω
mimnēskō
to remind; to remember
A memorial here is more than a marker left behind: it is a remembrance carried in speech. The same memory family appears in the word for “remembrance” in Luke 22:19, where a repeated act keeps something present.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: memory; remembrance
μνήμη
This names the memory held by the telling, showing how her deed remains present in what people hear.
anamnēsis: remembrance; recalling
ἀνάμνησις
This is the word for “remembrance” in Luke 22:19, where an act is kept present through repetition.
mnēmeion: memorial; tomb or monument
μνημεῖον
This related word makes the memorial concrete: a sign that calls someone or something to mind.
THE PATTERN
What a community repeats becomes a living memorial carried through generations.
And the LORD said to Moses, Write this as a memorial in a scroll, and set it into the ears of Joshua. For I will surely wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens.We will not hide them from their children, recounting to the generation that follows the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonders that he has done.And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.Matthew’s μνημόσυνον and Luke’s ἀνάμνησις belong to the Greek memory family of μιμνήσκω. In Matthew, her deed is carried forward through the gospel’s telling; in Luke, a shared act keeps remembrance present through repetition.
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