What Does John 11:19 Mean in the King James?
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
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 comfort begins before grief is explained: people come close enough to share it.
THE MEANING
When grief holds you, this verse makes room for people to come near and meet you in sorrow over what is lost. Comfort can begin in their presence while the loss remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that grief must be solved before anyone can meet it dissolves here: the visitors come to comfort Martha and Mary while their brother’s death is still the pain before them.
THE ROOT
παρακαλέσαι
parakalesai
GROWS FROM
παρακαλέω
parakaleō
To comfort or console; in other contexts, to urge or appeal.
The Greek verb here means to comfort, and its word family also includes consolation and advocacy. The verse gives that comfort a concrete shape: people come to Martha and Mary and meet them in their grief.
ALSO GROWS
paraklēsis: Consolation, comfort, or appeal.
παράκλησις
This noun names the consolation offered here as something people can give and receive.
paraklētos: Advocate or helper.
παράκλητος
This related word carries the sense of support; it shows how the same Greek word family reaches beyond consolation to someone who stands for another.
THE PATTERN
Comfort takes shape when someone enters another person’s sorrow and stays present to it.
Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.THE THREAD
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.John’s “comfort” and the repeated “comfort” in this verse come from the Greek family of παρακαλέω (parakaleō), meaning to comfort or console. The connection opens comfort as something that can be received in hardship and then shared with others.
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