What Does Matthew 27:13 Mean?
Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?
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 said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?THE KEY
The accusation is built into the Greek verb, while Pilate’s question counts the voices without proving their claims.
THE MEANING
When accusations gather around you, this verse lets you hear the question pressing in: how many voices are against you? Their number and direction are named; their truth is not settled here.
THE ROOT
καταμαρτυροῦσιν
katamartyrousin
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ
martyr
To witness or attest; with the prefix κατα- (kata-, against) in this form, to testify against someone.
“witness against” in this verse is katamartyrousin. The witness-root itself does not mean accusation; the prefix gives the testimony its direction. The same root can name testimony that supports truth, so the charge’s force does not come from the word “witness” alone.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
This names the person whose testimony gives the charge its human source.
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
The same root can name testimony itself, whether it accuses or affirms.
martyrion: evidence, testimony
μαρτύριον
This branch brings the question into view: what does the testimony establish?
ἀκούεις
akoueis
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
To hear or listen.
“hearest” in this verse is akoueis. Pilate asks whether Jesus hears the accusations, not whether he accepts them. A related compound, ὑπακούω (hypakouō), uses the same hear-root for listening under or obeying, showing that hearing and responding are connected without being identical.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: hearing, report
ἀκοή
The root can refer to hearing itself or to what is heard and reported.
hypakouō: listen under, obey
ὑπακούω
This compound shows how hearing can become a response, a step the question does not claim Jesus takes.
THE PATTERN
Testimony is weighed by what it establishes, not simply by how many voices repeat it.
You shall not go after the crowd to do harm. Nor shall you answer in a dispute, turning aside after the crowd, to bend judgment.For many bore false testimony against him, but their testimonies did not match.There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the witness he bears about me is true.THE THREAD
There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the witness he bears about me is true.Both verses use the μαρτυρ (martyr) witness-root. Matthew’s compound points testimony against Jesus; John names witness whose truth is known, showing that direction and quantity alone do not settle whether testimony is true.
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