What Does Hebrews 11:36 Mean in the King James?
And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
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 verse names captivity twice: as ties binding the body and as guarded custody closing around the person.
THE MEANING
Ridicule wounds the social self; scourging, bonds, and prison reach the body and its freedom. When you meet contempt or coercion, this verse names the harm plainly and holds it within a life of trust without calling the violence good or pretending the pain is small.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that humiliation or bodily harm proves trust has failed or that the sufferer is abandoned.
THE ROOT
δεσμῶν
desmōn
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
To bind or tie.
The Greek word points to things tied around a person, not just an abstract state of hardship. Its word family also names the bound person, so the verse’s bonds are restraints that act on an actual body.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, tie
δεσμός
This is the singular form of the word translated “bonds”; it makes the physical restraint in the verse visible.
desmios: bound person, prisoner
δέσμιος
The same word family names the person held by the bonds, joining the restraint to the person who bears it.
φυλακῆς
phylakēs
GROWS FROM
φυλασσ-
phylass-
To guard or keep watch; φυλακή names custody, a guarded place, or a prison.
“imprisonment” in this verse is phylakēs. The Greek word carries the sense of being held under guard, adding custody to the verse’s image of physical bonds. Together, the two words show confinement closing in through both restraint and watchful custody.
ALSO GROWS
phylassō: guard, keep watch over
φυλάσσω
This verb gives the word for imprisonment its guarding sense: someone is kept under watch.
phylax: guard, watchman
φύλαξ
The related word names the one who keeps watch, making the custody in “imprisonment” part of the picture.
THE PATTERN
Faithful witness can meet public shame, bodily force, and restraint, and scripture names the injury plainly.
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.THE THREAD
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.The Greek δεσμός (desmos, bond) appears in Hebrews as “bonds” and in Acts as “bands.” Acts shows those bands being loosed, creating a root-level echo of release while leaving the violence named in Hebrews fully intact.
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