What Does Matthew 28:8 Mean?
And they went away quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring word to his disciples.
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 they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.THE KEY
The women run toward the disciples with fear still in them, turning what they have heard into a message carried forward.
THE MEANING
Fear and great joy can occupy you at once; one does not have to erase the other. What reaches you can become a message you carry onward, even while alarm is still present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Fear means the joy is not real, or the message must wait until you are calm.
THE ROOT
ἀπαγγεῖλαι
apangeilai
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
aggel-
announce, convey a message
“bring word to his disciples” in this verse is apangeilai. The phrase rendered “bring word” uses a verb from the same word-family as “messenger.” The women move from receiving news to carrying it, so their run itself becomes an act of message-bearing.
ALSO GROWS
angelos: messenger
ἄγγελος
This branch names the one who carries a message; the women become messengers as they run to the disciples.
euangelion: good news, good message
εὐαγγέλιον
This branch shows the same message-bearing word-family carrying news that brings joy.
THE PATTERN
An encounter becomes a message carried onward, even while the messenger is still holding strong emotion.
Come and hear, all you who stand in awe of God, and I will recount what he has done for my living soul.Mary Magdalene came and brought word to the disciples that she had perceived the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.THE THREAD
Then Jesus said to them, Do not fear. Go, bring word to my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they will perceive me.Jesus uses the same announce-and-report word-family when he tells them to go tell his brothers. Their run in verse 8 already enacts the message-bearing that verse 10 names.
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