What Does Hebrews 11:19 Mean in the King James?
Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
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
Isaac’s return is called a “figure” because it stands beside resurrection as a living picture of what God can raise.
THE MEANING
The verse holds death as real while declaring that it is within God’s power to raise the dead. Isaac’s return becomes a figure, a comparison set beside resurrection, so the life received back points beyond itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that surrender makes loss final.
THE ROOT
παραβολῇ
parabolē
GROWS FROM
παρά + βάλλω (para + ballō), forming παραβολ- (parabol-)
To place or throw beside; by extension, to compare one thing with another.
The Greek word translated “figure” is the same word family as “parable”: a comparison that places one reality beside another. Isaac is received back as more than a rescued son; his return stands beside resurrection as its enacted picture.
ALSO GROWS
parabolē: A comparison or parable.
παραβολή
A parable places an image beside the reality it reveals; Isaac’s return serves that same revealing role.
paraballō: To place beside or compare.
παραβάλλω
This verb makes the image concrete: one event is set alongside another so their relation can be seen.
ἐγείρειν
egeirein
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω (egeirō), stem ἐγειρ-/ἐγερ- (egeir-/eger-)
To wake, rouse, or raise up.
“raise him up” in this verse is egeirein. The verb for raising also carries the sense of waking someone. Here God’s power reaches even into death: the dead can be roused and raised, and Isaac’s return gives that possibility a visible shape.
ALSO GROWS
egersis: A raising or resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This noun names the rising itself; the family of “raise” includes the resurrection the verse points toward.
egertheis: Having been raised.
ἐγερθείς
This form shows the same root describing someone who has been brought up from the condition of lying dead.
THE PATTERN
God’s power to raise means that what is handed over to death can return as a sign of life beyond itself.
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.THE THREAD
Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;“Figure” translates the same Greek word, παραβολή (parabolē), meaning a comparison or parable, in both verses. Hebrews 9:9 makes the word’s pattern clear: one visible reality is set beside another, so Isaac’s return can be seen as a picture of resurrection.
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