What Does Matthew 27:64 Mean?
Give orders, then, that the tomb be made firm until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, steal him away, and say to the people, He has been raised from the dead. Then the last wandering will be worse than the first.
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
Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.THE KEY
The request to secure the tomb reveals that the feared force is not the missing body alone, but the story people will tell about it.
THE MEANING
The verse shows a threatened account reaching for control of both a place and the words people may speak about it. Its urgency comes from the fear that the next report will displace the first and reshape what people believe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that controlling the tomb can control the story. The request itself shows that the feared meaning is still contested: a guard can secure the entrance, but not determine what people say.
THE ROOT
ἠγέρθη
ēgerthē
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
to wake, rouse, or raise up
“He has been raised from the dead” in this verse is ēgerthē. The form is passive: he “was raised.” The same word family names resurrection itself and, with a prefix meaning “together,” raising others with him; it holds both an event and participation in that raising.
ALSO GROWS
egersis: a raising; resurrection
ἔγερσις
Matthew 27:53 uses this related noun for the resurrection, keeping the passage’s language anchored in the act of being raised.
synegeirō: raise together
συνεγείρω
In Ephesians 2:6, this compound describes people being raised together with Christ, showing the root can name shared raising as well as the event feared here.
πλάνη
planē
GROWS FROM
πλαν-
plan-
to wander or be led astray
The word carries the motion of wandering or being led off course; its family names both leading astray and a “wandering star.” The “last error” is a feared public story with power to redirect belief.
ALSO GROWS
planáō: wander, lead astray, deceive
πλανάω
This verb from the same family gives “error” the added shade of being led astray, which fits the fear that a public claim could redirect what people believe.
planētēs: wanderer; wandering star
πλανήτης
The shared family preserves the image of movement off course, adding depth to the warning about a story that could lead people astray.
THE PATTERN
Attempts to contain a feared testimony can become part of the testimony that survives.
And a stone was brought and set upon the mouth of the pit, and the king sealed it with his own ring, and with the ring of his great ones, that the word might not change concerning Daniel.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.So they took the silver and did as they had been taught. And this word has been spread among the Jews until this day.THE THREAD
He is not here, for he was raised, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.“Risen” in both verses is the same form of ἐγείρω (egeirō), meaning “raise” or “awaken”: here it appears as a feared report; in Matthew 28:6 it is the announcement and an invitation to see the place. The same word carries the passage from anticipated claim into the next scene’s declaration.
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