What Does Matthew 27:58 Mean?
He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded that the body be given back.
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
He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.THE KEY
The handover that marks Jesus’ death now becomes the body’s release into Joseph’s care.
THE MEANING
As you read, Jesus’ body remains concrete: Joseph asks for it, and Pilate commands it to be handed over. Authority still determines where the body goes, and here that command opens a passage into another person’s care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Death does not make the body an abstraction or erase its claim on care.
THE ROOT
ἀποδοθῆναι
apodothēnai
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give, grant, or hand over
“given back” in this verse is apodothēnai. The Greek carries the sense of giving over or giving back. In the Passion, compounds built on this same giving-root describe Jesus being handed over to death and now his body being handed over to Joseph: the destination changes, but the act of transfer remains.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: hand over, deliver, betray
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used when Jesus is handed over to be crucified; the shared didōmi root links that transfer with the body’s later passage into Joseph’s hands.
metadidōmi: share, impart
μεταδίδωμι
The same giving-root can describe something passed on for another to receive, adding the sense of transfer that shapes this moment.
THE PATTERN
After death, a body can still be received, recovered, and carried into the care of others.
All the men of strength rose, and walked all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burned them there.And reverent men carried Stephen to his burial, and beat their breasts over him in great mourning.And after this, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but hidden for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might lift away the body of Jesus, and Pilate allowed it. So he came, and took the body of Jesus.THE THREAD
You know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is handed over to be crucified.Betrayed translates παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), built on the same δίδωμι (didōmi), to give, root as delivered in this verse. The same family of words carries Jesus into death and then describes his body passing into Joseph’s hands.
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