What Does Colossians 4:10 Mean in the King James?
Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)
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
English repeats “receive,” but the Greek shifts from taking in instructions to welcoming a person.
THE MEANING
Aristarchus’s greeting reaches you from shared confinement, while Marcus is named for welcome when he arrives. The verse distinguishes taking in instructions from opening to a person, giving hospitality a human form.
THE ROOT
δέξασθε
déxasthe from déchomai
GROWS FROM
δέχομαι
déchomai
To receive, accept, or welcome.
The earlier “received” is ἐλάβετε (elábete, “you received or took”), from λαμβάνω (lambánō, “take or receive”); English repeats the word while Greek changes verbs. Here déchomai gives receiving a relational force: Marcus is to be welcomed as a person.
ALSO GROWS
apodéchomai: To welcome or receive gladly.
ἀποδέχομαι
This related verb makes the welcoming shade of the shared receiving root especially clear.
dektós: Acceptable; welcome.
δεκτός
The same word family can describe someone as welcome, linking the act of receiving with the welcome a person experiences.
συναιχμάλωτος
synaichmálōtos
GROWS FROM
αἰχμαλωτ- (aichmalōt-), with σύν (syn, “together”)
Captive or taken prisoner; σύν makes this one held alongside another.
“fellowprisoner” in this verse is synaichmálōtos. The word names shared captivity, not just companionship. Aristarchus’s greeting comes from someone bound in the same condition, while the verse also speaks of welcoming a person who comes to the community.
ALSO GROWS
aichmalōtízō: To take captive.
αἰχμαλωτίζω
The related verb names the act behind the shared condition described by “fellowprisoner.”
aichmalōsía: Captivity.
αἰχμαλωσία
This related noun names the condition they share, giving “fellowprisoner” its weight.
THE PATTERN
Welcoming a person gives tangible form to the truth or work they carry.
Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.THE THREAD
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.The Greek verb for “receive” here is the same verb as Colossians 4:10 uses for welcoming Marcus. Matthew opens that welcome outward: receiving the person can also mean receiving the one who sent them.
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