What Does Matthew 26:25 Mean?
Then Judas, who handed him over, answered and said, Teacher, is it I? He said to him, You have said it.
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
Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.THE KEY
The word translated “betrayed” means “handed over,” and Jesus returns Judas’s question to the words he has spoken.
THE MEANING
A person can be handing someone over while asking whether the act is theirs. Jesus’s reply returns the question to its speaker: what is being done and what is being said meet in the open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that asking whether you are responsible can keep an act from being named. Jesus makes Judas’s own words part of the answer.
THE ROOT
παραδιδούς
paradidous
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give.
“who handed him over” in this verse is paradidous. Judas is described as the one handing Jesus over; “betrayed” names the character of that handover, while the Greek verb is built on “give.” The root lets this act remain connected to the wider language of giving and handing over, a connection the English label alone can hide.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: Hand over, deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb behind Judas’s description in the verse: his betrayal takes the form of handing Jesus over.
metadidōmi: Share, impart.
μεταδίδωμι
This related verb uses the same “give” root for sharing something with another, showing how the root can describe different directions and purposes of giving.
didōmi: Give.
δίδωμι
The simple verb makes visible the root contained in the word translated “betrayed.”
THE PATTERN
Words carry and disclose more than their surface phrasing: they can reveal what a person holds within or what an act means.
A good human brings out good from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil human brings out evil from the evil treasure of the heart, for from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.For by your words you will be made aligned, and by your words you will be condemned.Death and life are in the hand of the tongue, and those who love it eat its fruit.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 describes Judas as the one handing Jesus over; Romans uses the same Greek verb when it says God “delivered him up” for all. The shared root keeps the act of handing over visible while the verses name different agents and purposes.
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