Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus meets Judas leading soldiers
Matthew 26:50 Friend, wherefore art thou come?
Matthew 26:50 Do what you came for, friend
Buddy, for what are you here?
Jesus could be ironic or sarcastic and ask rhetorical questions.
This question is clearly a light-hearted one since Jesus has already told his followers exactly who is coming and why. This is spoken when Christ meets Judas when he is about to betray him. The Greek has two uncommon words for Jesus, the word translated as "friend" and "come." Neither are the common words Jesus uses for these ideas.
It should be noted that this verse is translated very differently in many of the more recent translations, such as the NIV where it becomes “Do what you came for, friend.” These translations add a lot that is not in the Greek.
- CW - Confusing Word -- The "friend" is not the common word usually translated as "friend."
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "come" should be something more like "here" or "present."
- IW - Inserted Word -- The word "do" doesn't exist in the source.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "come" should be something more like "here" or "present."
- CW - Confusing Word -- The "friend" is not the common word usually translated as "friend."
Friend, - (CW) "Friend" is a noun that has both the sense of being a "comrade" and "companion" and being a "pupil", "disciple," and "associate." Christ uses it only three other times. None of them are situations that are "friendly," addressing someone in a disagreement, and this is the only one where "disciple" works. Christ uses the word ironically. Perhaps "pal," "buddy", or "chum". This is not the word commonly translated as "friend."
wherefore - "Wherefore" is from two Greek words which literally means "for what." - The word translated as "for" has many different meanings including "on," "over," "upon," "against," "before," "after," "during," "by" "in the case of." However, it also means "for" when referring to a purpose, which seem to be the point here. or The"what" word is a demonstrative pronoun ("this" "that"), but it often acts as a pronoun or a question word: "what," "who," "why," etc.
art -- This helping verb indicates the present tense of the verb.
thou -- This is from the second-person, singular form of the verb.
come? - (WW) The uncommon word translated as "come" means "to be near" and "to be present." It is not the word commonly translated as "come" in the Gospels.
Do -- (IW) There is nothing in the Greek that can be translated as "do" in the Greek source.
what - The"what" word is a demonstrative pronoun ("this" "that"), but it often acts as a pronoun or a question word: "what," "who," "why," etc.
you -- This is from the second-person, singular form of the verb.
came - (WW) The uncommon word translated as "came" means "to be near" and "to be present." It is not the word commonly translated as "come" in the Gospels.
for, - The word translated as "for" has many different meanings including "on," "over," "upon," "against," "before," "after," "during," "by" "in the case of." However, it also means "for" when referring to a purpose, which seem to be the point here. or
friend - (CW) "Friend" is a noun that has both the sense of being a "comrade" and "companion" and being a "pupil", "disciple," and "associate." Christ uses it only three other times. None of them are situations that are "friendly," addressing someone in a disagreement, and this is the only one where "disciple" works. Christ uses the word ironically. Perhaps "pal," "buddy", or "chum".
Ἑταῖρε, [3 verses](noun sg masc voc) "Friend" is from hetairos, which means "comrade", "companion", "pupil", "disciple," and "associate."
ἐφ [138 verses](prep)᾽ "Wherefore" is from epi. (with hos below) which means "on", "upon", "at", "by", "before", "across," and "against."
ὃ [294 verses](pron sg neut acc) "Wherefore" is from hos, (with epi above) which means "this", "that", "he", "she", "which", "what", "who", "whosoever", "where", "for which reason," and many similar meanings.
πάρει. [2 verses](verb 2nd sg pres ind act) "Come" is pareimi , which means "to be present", "to be near," and "to be ready."
"Buddy," he said coldly. "Why are you here?"