What Does Matthew 26:28 Mean?
For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many, for the release of shortcomings.
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
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.THE KEY
“Remission” means release: the verse presents sins as something that can be let go, not a permanent identity.
THE MEANING
Jesus (יֵשׁוּעַ, Yeshua, from יָשַׁע, yasha: deliverance from narrowness into spaciousness) speaks of his blood poured out in covenant for many, with release from sins as its purpose. The verse meets you now with the claim that what is held as guilt can be released.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that your failures are fixed to you and can never be released.
THE ROOT
ἄφεσις
aphesis
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
To let go, send away, or release; the verb also means forgive.
“Remission” can sound like a status recorded after wrongdoing, while ἄφεσις (aphesis, release) holds the image of letting go. The same Greek noun is used for deliverance and liberty, showing that release from sins belongs to a wider language of liberation.
ALSO GROWS
aphiēmi: Release, let go, or forgive.
ἀφίημι
This is the verb behind the noun ἄφεσις, making remission an act of release.
apheōntai: They have been released or forgiven.
ἀφέωνται
This form of the same verb appears in Luke 5:20 for sins that have been released.
ἐκχυννόμενον
ekchynnomenon
GROWS FROM
ἐκχέω
ekcheō
To pour out or pour forth.
The Greek pictures Jesus’ blood being poured out. The image keeps the verse’s physical force while showing that its stated purpose is release.
ALSO GROWS
cheō: Pour or spill.
χέω
This base verb carries the action of pouring within ἐκχέω.
ekcheō: Pour out, pour forth.
ἐκχέω
This is the verb behind the verse’s “shed,” presenting the blood as poured out.
διαθήκη
diathēkē
GROWS FROM
τίθημι (tithēmi), in διατίθημι (diatithēmi)
To set or place; with διά (dia), to arrange or establish.
Alongside the KJV’s “testament,” διαθήκη (diathēkē, covenant) carries the sense of an arrangement set in place. Here the covenant is made tangible in the poured-out blood, and release is its stated purpose.
ALSO GROWS
tithēmi: Set or place.
τίθημι
This root gives the word family its sense of something established.
diatithēmi: Arrange or establish a covenant.
διατίθημι
This related verb shows the arranging sense carried by διαθήκη.
THE PATTERN
Covenant release makes what is held, debt, sin, or captivity, able to be let go.
And this is the word of the release. Every one whose hand has lent to his neighbor shall let it fall, and he shall not press it from his neighbor or from his brother, for it is called the LORD's release.And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and his brother, saying, Perceive the LORD, for they shall all perceive me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will release their crookedness, and their shortcomings I will remember no more.And nearly all things are cleansed in blood according to the instruction, and without the pouring out of blood, no release comes.THE THREAD
The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.The same Greek noun ἄφεσις (aphesis, release) translated “remission” here appears twice in this verse, rendered “deliverance” and “liberty.” Release from sins belongs to the same word-space as release for captives and the crushed.
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