What Does Matthew 26:15 Mean?
And said to them, What will you give me, and I will hand him over to you? And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.
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 said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.THE KEY
The Greek uses the same give-root for the money Judas asks to receive and the person he offers to hand over.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks wherever a person is reduced to a price: money changes hands as a human being is handed over. The same give-root binds the payment to the transfer, and the thirty pieces make that valuation concrete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that money changes hands without changing a human life dissolves here: the stated price is tied to handing a person over.
THE ROOT
παραδίδωμι
paradidōmi
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant; the base verb within παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), meaning “to hand over.”
In the Greek, δοῦναι (dounai), “to give,” is the verb in Judas’s question, while παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), “to hand over,” is his offer. English uses different words for the money and the person; Greek keeps both acts within the same give-root, with the compound specifying the handover.
ALSO GROWS
dounai: To give; an infinitive form of δίδωμι (didōmi).
δοῦναι
This is the form behind “give me” in the same sentence, so the payment and the handover share the same root.
metadidōmi: To share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
The same give-root can describe sharing; here the compound directs the giving toward handing a person over.
THE PATTERN
When a human life is made an object of exchange, silver gives the valuation a visible measure.
If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, he gives to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is stoned.And I said to them, If it is good in your eyes, give me my wages; and if not, leave off. And they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was filled, saying, They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one who was valued, whom the children of Israel valued.THE THREAD
And from that time he sought an opportunity to hand him over.The Greek παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), “hand over,” is rendered “deliver” in verse 15 and “betray” here. The wording keeps the same act in view: seeking an opportunity to hand him over.
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