What Does John 11:36 Mean in the King James?
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved 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
The Greek word for “loved” belongs to the same word-family as “friend,” making the crowd’s reading of grief an insight into a bond, not an abstract quality.
THE MEANING
Love is visible to the reader in affection that stays close to grief instead of hovering above it. Sorrow does not erase love; it gives the bond a shape others can recognize.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that tears contradict love is undone: here, sorrow and affection appear together.
THE ROOT
ἐφίλει
ephilei
GROWS FROM
φιλ-
phil-
To love, feel affection for, or hold dear.
English separates “loved” from “friend,” but both grow from the Greek φιλ- (phil-) word-family: φιλέω (phileō) means to love or hold dear, while φίλος (philos) means friend or dear one. The crowd’s words name the affection already present in Lazarus’s place as Jesus’s friend, and the grief makes that bond perceptible.
ALSO GROWS
philos: Friend; dear one.
φίλος
This is the same word-family as “loved,” joining affection to the person held dear.
philia: Friendship; affection.
φιλία
This noun shows the same family naming the bond that the crowd recognizes in Jesus’s grief.
THE PATTERN
Love becomes legible through the bonds it names and the care it makes visible.
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.THE THREAD
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.The word translated “friend” is φίλος (philos, “friend” or “dear one”), from the same φιλ- (phil-) family as ἐφίλει (ephilei, “loved” or “held dear”) here. English separates the bond from its expression; Greek lets the crowd’s words echo Jesus’s own naming of Lazarus as his friend.
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