What Does Matthew 26:16 Mean?
And from that time he sought an opportunity to hand him over.
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 from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.THE KEY
Betrayal begins before the handover: even searching for the right moment belongs to the act.
THE MEANING
The verse makes betrayal visible before the handover: the search for a fitting moment is already part of it. Its living edge is how a person can be reduced in another’s mind to someone to transfer, with only the timing left undecided.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Betrayal begins only when the outward act happens; this verse locates it earlier, in the deliberate search for an opening.
THE ROOT
παραδῷ
paradō
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι (didōmi), with παρά (para)
δίδωμι means “give”; the compound means “give over” or “hand over.”
“hand over” in this verse is paradō. The Greek word keeps a concrete transfer inside what English calls betrayal: someone is handed into another’s power. Here, the intention to hand him over is already active before the moment arrives.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: give
δίδωμι
This is the base verb in the compound; the transfer remains present beneath the betrayal.
paradosis: handing down; tradition
παράδοσις
This related word also carries the sense of something passed from one person to another, showing how context and intention make this particular handover a betrayal.
apodidōmi: give back; repay
ἀποδίδωμι
The shared verb for giving shows that the action is a transfer; the surrounding purpose determines its force.
εὐκαιρίαν
eukairian
GROWS FROM
καιρός (kairos), with εὖ (eu, well)
καιρός is a fitting time or season; εὐκαιρία names a well-timed occasion.
“opportunity” in this verse is eukairian. The word points to a fitting moment, something Judas actively seeks. The timing remains undecided, but the intention to hand him over is already set.
ALSO GROWS
kairos: fitting time; season
καιρός
The sought opportunity is a particular moment within a sequence, not merely a vague possibility.
eukairos: timely; opportune
εὔκαιρος
This related form carries the quality of being well-timed, highlighting why the search is for a suitable opening.
THE PATTERN
A handover reveals the purposes attached to it, which can differ even when the act is the same.
Then Midianite traders passed by, and they drew him up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph into Egypt.This one, handed over by the marked-out counsel and foreknowing of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of the unbounded, and you killed him.He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, how will he not also favor us with all things along with him?THE THREAD
He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, how will he not also favor us with all things along with him?Matthew uses παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), “hand over,” for the betrayal Judas seeks; Romans uses the same verb when it says the Son is “delivered him up for us all.” The shared word keeps the transfer visible while the verses name sharply different intentions around it.
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