What Does Matthew 26:20 Mean?
Now when evening had come, he reclined with the twelve.
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
Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.THE KEY
“Sat down” also carries the Greek image of reclining at a meal, making shared closeness the scene’s first fact.
THE MEANING
Evening has come, and Jesus is settled with the twelve. You enter the scene at a shared meal, with the whole circle gathered before anything more is spoken.
THE ROOT
ἀνέκειτο
anekeito
GROWS FROM
κεῖμαι
keimai
To lie or be placed.
“reclined” in this verse is anekeito. The Greek verb ἀνάκειμαι (anakeimai), meaning “recline at a meal,” gives “sat down” the added image of a guest settled at the table. Its base, κεῖμαι (keimai), meaning “lie” or “be placed,” keeps that resting posture visible in the scene.
ALSO GROWS
anakeimai: To recline as a guest at a meal.
ἀνάκειμαι
This is the verb used here: Jesus is settled at the table with the twelve.
apokeimai: To be laid aside or kept in reserve.
ἀπόκειμαι
It shares the base sense of being laid or placed; here that sense appears as Jesus settled among the twelve.
THE PATTERN
A shared table gathers intimacy and vulnerability in the same place.
And they will eat the flesh on that night, roasted with fire, with unrisen bread; with bitter herbs they will eat it.You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.And as they reclined and ate, Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, one of you who eats with me will hand me over.THE THREAD
Now one of his disciples was reclining in the fold of Jesus' robe, the one whom Jesus loved.Matthew’s “sat down” and John’s “leaning” render forms of ἀνάκειμαι (anakeimai), meaning “recline at a meal.” The shared verb moves from Jesus gathered with the twelve to one disciple reclining close beside him.
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