What Does Matthew 26:3 Mean?
Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, into the courtyard of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.
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 assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,THE KEY
The leaders’ convergence is the scene’s engine: “assembled together” comes from the same Greek family as συναγωγή (synagōgē, “assembly” or “synagogue”).
THE MEANING
You can watch priestly office, scriptural expertise, and elder status converge at the high priest’s house. The gathering does not stay abstract: the next verse shows this circle coordinating how to take Jesus and kill him.
THE ROOT
συνήχθησαν
synēchthēsan
GROWS FROM
ἄγω (agō), in συνάγω (synagō)
ἄγω (agō) means “bring” or “lead”; συν- (syn-) means “together.” In συνάγω (synagō), these form “gather together.”
“assembled together” in this verse is synēchthēsan. The verb συνήχθησαν (synēchthēsan, “they gathered together”) belongs to the same word-family as συναγωγή (synagōgē, “assembly” or “synagogue”). The language places the act of gathering itself at the center of the scene, alongside the offices of the people gathered.
ALSO GROWS
synagōgē: Gathering, assembly; synagogue.
συναγωγή
This noun shares the compound συν- + ἄγω, linking the leaders’ act of gathering with the familiar word for an assembly.
agōgē: Leading, conduct.
ἀγωγή
This word from ἄγω preserves the sense of bringing or leading that underlies the gathering verb.
THE PATTERN
When authority converges, shared counsel can become organized opposition to the anointed.
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers sit down together against the LORD and against his anointed one, saying,And consulted that they might seize Jesus by deceit, and kill him.The kings of the earth stood side by side, and the rulers gathered together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.THE THREAD
The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers sit down together against the LORD and against his anointed one, saying,The Greek translation of Psalm 2:2 uses συνήχθησαν (synēchthēsan, “they gathered together”), the same verb used in Matthew 26:3. The KJV renders the psalm’s gathering as “take counsel together”; the shared Greek word reveals the gathering beneath that counsel.
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