What Does John 11:8 Mean?
His disciples said to him, Teacher, the Jews just now sought to stone you, and are you going there again?
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
His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?THE KEY
The word for stoning grows from the Greek word for stone, making the threat here physical rather than abstract.
THE MEANING
The danger named here is bodily and specific: stoning is the threat. The disciples’ question about going again keeps that danger fully present beside the return.
THE ROOT
λιθάσαι
lithasai
GROWS FROM
λιθ
lith
Stone; this stem forms both the word for a stone and the verb for stoning.
The Greek verb λιθάζω (lithazō), “to stone,” shares its stem with λίθος (lithos), “stone.” English separates the object from the act, while the Greek family makes the threat tangible: the stone itself becomes the instrument of violence.
ALSO GROWS
lithos: stone
λίθος
The noun names the object that gives the threat its physical force.
lithazō: to stone
λιθάζω
The verb names what people threaten to do with that object.
THE PATTERN
The text names stoning as physical danger rather than leaving hostility abstract.
And Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.And David was greatly pressed into a narrow place, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the living soul of all the people had turned bitter, each man over his sons and over his daughters; but David took firm hold of himself in the LORD his God.But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds and stoned Paul, they dragged him outside the city, supposing he had died.THE THREAD
So the Jews lifted stones again to stone him.John 10:31 repeats the same Greek verb for stoning, linking this warning to another physical threat in the Gospel. The shared word-family keeps the danger concrete and recurring.
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