What Does Matthew 27:18 Mean?
For he knew that they had handed him over out of envy.
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 he knew that for envy they had delivered him.THE KEY
The Greek for “delivered” is built on “give”: envy turns a person into what others hand over.
THE MEANING
Envy can hide beneath the outward act of handing someone over. What appears to be a case against a person can be driven by resentment of that person’s standing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The public reason for someone’s rejection must be the real motive.
THE ROOT
παρέδωκαν
paredōkan from paradidōmi
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give; παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) means to give over or hand over.
“handed him over” in this verse is paredōkan from paradidōmi. The Greek word translated “delivered” is παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, “hand over”), built from δίδωμι (didōmi, “give”). Envy is named as the force behind that transfer: a person is given into other hands.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give, grant, or place.
δίδωμι
This is the verb’s base: the handover is a giving of someone into another’s hands.
apodidōmi: To give back or repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
The same give-root describes a transfer back to someone, keeping the verse’s movement between hands in view.
metadidōmi: To share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
The same root can describe sharing; here, with παραδίδωμι, the giving becomes a handover that places someone under another’s power.
THE PATTERN
Envy turns rivalry into the handing over or harming of another.
A healing heart is the life of the flesh, but envy is the rot of the bones.And the father-rulers, burning with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him.For where boiling and strife are, there is no standing still and every base deed.THE THREAD
And said to them, What will you give me, and I will hand him over to you? And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.The same Greek handover verb, παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, “hand over”), appears beside δοῦναι (dounai, “to give”): the handover is named within a transaction. Matthew 27:18 exposes envy as the motive beneath that transfer, joining the hidden appetite to the visible act.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us