What Does 2 Timothy 4:13 Mean in the King James?
The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word translated “books” belongs to the same Greek word-family as “Bible,” showing that the Bible’s name began as the plain word for books someone could carry and read.
THE MEANING
A cloak is named alongside books, with the parchments given special place. What matters can be as bodily as a covering and as tangible as written words. The request makes care concrete: what matters is named and carried to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that bodily need is too ordinary or unspiritual to name: the cloak is requested alongside the valued writings.
THE ROOT
τὰ βιβλία
ta biblia
GROWS FROM
βιβλ- (βύβλος)
The Greek word-family means papyrus and, by extension, a written roll or book.
English makes “books” sound generic, but this Greek word-family also stands behind our word “Bible.” Here it names books sought for use, something to be brought near and read, with the parchments receiving special priority.
ALSO GROWS
byblos: Papyrus; also a papyrus roll or book.
βύβλος
The word-family retains the material sense of writing as well as the thing written.
biblion: A book, scroll, or written volume.
βιβλίον
This is the singular form in the same family as the verse’s “books.”
Bible: A collection of books; the English name descends from Greek βιβλία (biblia).
A name now associated with sacred scripture comes from the ordinary Greek word for books.
φέρε
phere
GROWS FROM
φερ- (φέρω)
To carry, bear, or bring.
“bring” in this verse is phere. The request is for the things to be carried into the speaker’s presence. This verb-family can also describe bearing or carrying something forward, making care here a concrete act of carrying.
ALSO GROWS
anapherō: Carry up, bear, or offer.
ἀναφέρω
The same base can describe carrying beyond simple transport, including bearing something.
prospherō: Bring toward, present, or offer.
προσφέρω
The added sense of bringing toward illuminates the movement in “bring with thee.”
THE PATTERN
Written words become companions when they are kept near, read, and held in view.
And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.THE THREAD
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;The Greek verb translated “bring” comes from φέρω (pherō), the same verb-family behind “upholding” here. The link widens carrying from transporting objects to bearing and sustaining; in this verse, books and parchments are carried into reach.
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