What Does Matthew 27:55 Mean?
Many women were there watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, serving him.
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 many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:THE KEY
Their distance is real, but it does not erase their presence: the verse holds beholding from afar together with following and practical service.
THE MEANING
A bond can remain present when closeness is impossible. These women behold from afar, yet the verse still names their relation to Jesus through following and service. Distance marks where they stand, not whether they belong in the scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that standing far away makes care meaningless: the women are distant, yet the text still names their following and service.
THE ROOT
διακονοῦσαι
diakonousai
GROWS FROM
διακον-
diakon-
The Greek stem carries the sense of serving or attending to another.
“serving” in this verse is diakonousai. The same stem names both the attendant and the work of service, so this is not merely a title: it is care enacted toward someone. The sentence sets that service beside beholding from afar, showing that distance does not make their care less real.
ALSO GROWS
diakonos: Servant, attendant
διάκονος
The related noun names the person who serves, connecting the women’s action with a role of practical attendance.
diakonia: Service, ministry
διακονία
This related noun names the work itself, making the verse’s “ministering” part of a wider family of enacted service.
ἠκολούθησαν
ēkolouthēsan
GROWS FROM
ἀκολουθ-
akolouth-
The Greek stem carries the sense of following or accompanying.
“followed” in this verse is ēkolouthēsan. The verse places following from Galilee alongside beholding and serving. Following is not only a label for these women; it is a continuing relation expressed through their presence and care.
ALSO GROWS
akoloutheō: To follow, accompany
ἀκολουθέω
This verb is the related lexical form behind the verse’s “followed.”
akolouthos: Follower, attendant
ἀκόλουθος
This related noun names one who accompanies, echoing the close connection between following Jesus and serving him.
μακρόθεν
makrothen
GROWS FROM
μακρ-
makr-
The Greek stem carries the sense of distance or length.
“afar off” in this verse is makrothen. The Greek word marks a real spatial gap, but the sentence does not leave the women defined by that gap: it also names their following and service. Their distance is part of the scene, not the whole of their relation to Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
makros: Long, far
μακρός
This related adjective carries the same sense of distance found in “afar off.”
makran: Far away, at a distance
μακράν
This related adverb shares the stem and makes the spatial sense of the verse explicit.
THE PATTERN
Practical care makes presence tangible, even when people are separated by distance.
She spreads her palm to the bowed, and stretches out her hands to the craving.And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who served him from what was theirs.And the King answers and says to them, Truly, I say to you, Whatever you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did to me.THE THREAD
Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his living soul as a ransom for many.The word family διακον- (diakon-, serving or attending) appears in Jesus’ own words about coming “to minister.” The women’s service belongs to the same pattern he names for himself.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us