What Does Matthew 28:15 Mean?
So they took the silver and did as they had been taught. And this word has been spread among the Jews until this day.
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
So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.THE KEY
A purchased script becomes common knowledge by being repeated, but circulation does not make it true.
THE MEANING
A claim can be taught into someone’s mouth, given material incentive, and repeated until it passes as common knowledge. Its reach is real, while its truth remains unproven.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A story repeated widely must be true; this verse shows how a report can spread because people were paid and instructed to repeat it.
THE ROOT
διεφημίσθη
diephēmisthē
GROWS FROM
φημ-
To say or report.
“has been spread” in this verse is diephēmisthē. The verb describes a report being spread abroad. Its root keeps the act of saying inside the public report: the account becomes widespread through repetition, not through proof.
ALSO GROWS
phēmi: I say; I assert.
φημί
The public report is made from assertions spoken and passed along.
phēmē: A report, reputation, or rumor.
φήμη
This branch shows how an account can acquire a public reputation simply by circulating.
ἐδιδάχθησαν
edidachthēsan
GROWS FROM
διδασκ-
To teach or instruct.
“were taught” in this verse is edidachthēsan. The soldiers repeat what has first been put into their mouths. The verse links instruction to transmission: a taught script becomes a report once its hearers carry it onward.
ALSO GROWS
didaskō: To teach or instruct.
διδάσκω
The soldiers’ account begins with deliberate instruction.
didaskalos: A teacher.
διδάσκαλος
The word family makes the source of the account visible: someone is teaching the speakers what to say.
THE PATTERN
A planted account gains public reach when people repeat it as testimony.
For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Tell, they say, and we will tell it. All the men of my wholeness watched for my stumbling, saying, Perhaps he will be coaxed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our vengeance on him.Then they slipped in men who said, We have heard him speak wounding words against Moses and against God.THE THREAD
Saying, Say that his disciples came in the night and stole him away while we slept.The account begins as an explicit script: the elders give the soldiers money and tell them what to say. The Greek λέγοντες (legontes, “saying”) in verse 13 belongs to the same word family as λόγος (logos, “word” or “account”) in verse 15; the instructed sentence has become the report people pass around.
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