What Does Matthew 26:61 Mean?
And said, This one said, I am able to tear down the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
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 said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.THE KEY
The accusation pairs a temple’s dismantling with its rebuilding, and the Greek verb for “destroy” carries the image of loosening what holds it together.
THE MEANING
This verse lets you hear an accusation that contains both dismantling and rebuilding: the temple is said to be destroyed, then built again in three days. The charge is presented as testimony against Jesus, while its Greek verbs preserve a movement from loosening to house-building. John uses the same word for temple when he names Jesus’ body, opening this line toward a dwelling that is embodied.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A dwelling’s destruction must be its final word.
THE ROOT
καταλῦσαι
katalysai
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loosen or unbind; compounded with κατά, to dismantle or destroy.
“tear down” in this verse is katalysai. The Greek verb holds dismantling inside the image of loosening what binds a structure together. Beside the claim to rebuild, destruction becomes one movement in a sentence that also names a dwelling being built again.
ALSO GROWS
lyō: Loosen, untie, or release.
λύω
This simple verb is the core of καταλύω, making the language of destruction carry the image of loosening.
apolyō: Release, dismiss, or let go.
ἀπολύω
This compound uses the same λύω root for releasing someone, showing how the shared word family can reach from unbinding to dismantling.
οἰκοδομῆσαι
oikodomēsai
GROWS FROM
οἶκος + δομέω (oikos + domeō)
House plus build: to build a dwelling.
“build” in this verse is oikodomēsai. The Greek says more than a general act of construction: it names house-building. Its place beside καταλύω keeps loosening and rebuilding together, so the sentence does not leave the temple at demolition.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomē: A building or edification.
οἰκοδομή
This noun carries the same house-building family into the idea of something built up.
oikodomos: A builder.
οἰκοδόμος
The builder belongs to the same word family, keeping the focus on a dwelling being made.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places a dwelling’s dismantling beside its rebuilding, then reveals the temple as embodied life.
Jesus answered and said to them, Unbind this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is taken down, we have a house built by God, not made by hands, of the ages, in the heavens.Have you not seen that you are God's temple, and that the breath of God dwells in you?THE THREAD
But he spoke of the temple of his body.Matthew’s “temple” and John’s “temple” translate the same Greek word, ναός. John names that temple as Jesus’ body, opening the accusation’s language of destruction and rebuilding toward an embodied dwelling.
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