What Does Matthew 27:63 Mean?
Saying, Sir, we remember that the one who leads astray said, while he was still alive, After three days I will be raised.
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
Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.THE KEY
The accusation keeps the promise alive: the men calling him a deceiver are the ones preserving his words about rising.
THE MEANING
You hear a claim about rising held inside an accusation: the speaker is called one who leads astray, yet his words remain in the mouths of those who dismiss him. The verb translated “rise” also carries the sense of waking or being raised, so the remembered statement holds an image of awakening. The accusation and the promise stand together, neither erased by the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a claim disappears once it is dismissed is undone here: the accusers repeat the very words they mean to discredit.
THE ROOT
ἐγείρομαι
egeiromai
GROWS FROM
ἐγερ-
eger-
to rouse, awaken, or raise
The quoted verb is present-form ἐγείρομαι (egeiromai), rendered “I will rise again.” Its root also carries the sense of waking or rousing, so awakening is held inside the claim of rising.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: to awaken, rouse, or raise
ἐγείρω
The same verb can describe waking someone from sleep, adding the image of awakening to the promise of rising.
egersis: a rising, resurrection
ἔγερσις
Matthew 27:53 uses this noun from the same root for “resurrection,” echoing the remembered verb within the surrounding passage.
πλάνος
planos
GROWS FROM
πλαν-
plan-
to wander or lead astray
“the one who leads astray” in this verse is planos. The Greek word carries the sense of one who leads others off course. The verse lets that verdict stand beside the very words the accusers remember.
ALSO GROWS
planaō: to wander, lead astray, or deceive
πλανάω
The label belongs to a word family about going astray or causing someone else to do so.
planē: wandering, error, deception
πλάνη
This related noun names the deviation itself, showing that “deceiver” is a claim about the direction in which someone leads.
THE PATTERN
The third day marks a movement from what lies down to what is raised into life.
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before his face.Jesus answered and said to them, Unbind this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.And that he was buried, and that he has been awakened on the third day according to the writings.THE THREAD
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the set-apart ones who had fallen asleep were raised.The word translated “arose” comes from the same Greek root as “rise” in this verse. The remembered claim about awakening echoes in the account of those who have slept and are raised.
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