What Does Matthew 28:14 Mean?
And if this reaches the ears of the governor, we will persuade him and keep you undivided.
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 if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.THE KEY
The lie is built as a transaction: persuade the authority, then promise the witnesses relief from worry.
THE MEANING
A false account arrives with two assurances: the governor will be persuaded, and the guards will be left untroubled. The story offers protection at both ends, managing what the authority hears and calming those asked to repeat it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a convincing lie stands on words alone: it can also depend on a promised shield for those who carry it.
THE ROOT
πείσομεν
peisomen
GROWS FROM
πείθω (peithō), stem πειθ-
To persuade, win over, or induce confidence.
The verb translated “persuade” belongs to a word family that also expresses trust and confidence: πέποιθα (pépoitha) means “I trust” or “I am confident.” Here, the speakers promise to move the governor toward belief in their account.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, win over.
πείθω
This is the verb used for what the speakers promise to do to the governor.
pépoitha: Trust, be confident.
πέποιθα
It shows the confidence that persuasion can produce: the account is meant to become something the governor accepts as true.
peithomai: Be persuaded; in some contexts, obey.
πείθομαι
It shows the other side of persuasion: the person being addressed yields to what is said.
ἀμερίμνους ποιήσομεν
amerimnous poiēsomen
GROWS FROM
μέριμνα (merimna), stem μεριμν-; ἀ- means “without”
Care, concern, or anxiety; the prefixed form describes its absence.
The phrase translated “secure you” also carries the sense of making the guards free from care. The promise reaches beyond influencing the governor: it offers to quiet the worries of those asked to repeat the account.
ALSO GROWS
merimna: Care, concern, anxiety.
μέριμνα
This is what the promise removes from the guards.
merimnaō: Be anxious, worry, or care for.
μεριμνάω
It gives the family of words a lived dimension: the offer addresses the guards’ concern about what may happen to them.
amerimnos: Free from care, untroubled.
ἀμέριμνος
This is the word used for the state the speakers promise to give the guards.
THE PATTERN
Deceptive speech seeks to control what authority hears while assuring its speakers that they can prevail.
If a ruler hears and responds to lies, all who stand before him are restless.Who have said, with our tongue we will be strong; our lips are with us; who is lord over us?And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, You have blessed God and the king. Then bring him out, and stone him, that he may die.THE THREAD
If a ruler hears and responds to lies, all who stand before him are restless.Matthew shows a lie being carried toward a governor’s hearing, with protection promised to its messengers. Proverbs names the wider structure: when authority accepts lies, the corruption reaches those who serve it.
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