What Does John 11:39 Mean in the King James?

Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

John 11:39 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The command to lift the stone opens the grave while leaving its unmistakable evidence of death fully exposed.

THE MEANING

The verse lets you name what is unmistakable: death has been present long enough to leave a smell, and no one denies it. Yet the first command is to move the stone, opening the closed place before life is called into it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that visible decay means a place is beyond reach. Martha’s report remains true; it does not settle what happens next.

THE ROOT

ἄρατε

árate

GROWS FROM

αἴρω

⁨αἴρω⁩ (airō) means to lift, raise, take up, or remove.

“Take away” in this verse is árate. The command ⁨ἄρατε⁩ comes from ⁨αἴρω⁩, a verb that holds lifting and removal together: the stone is taken away by lifting it out of the way. The grave is opened through a concrete act that exposes what is inside; the text does not conceal the reality Martha names.

ALSO GROWS

epairō: To lift up or raise

ἐπαίρω

This compound retains the ⁨αἴρω⁩ core, making the physical sense of lifting audible in the command to move the stone.

apairō: To lift off, remove, or depart

ἀπαίρω

This compound makes the removal sense explicit: what seals the tomb is cleared away.

THE PATTERN

The boundary of death is not closed to divine action: graves open, and the dead hear a call into life.

Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

Ezekiel 37:12 · KJVThe graves are opened, and those within are brought up from them.

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,

John 5:28 · KJVThose held in the graves hear a voice that reaches across death’s boundary.

And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.

Luke 7:14 · KJVA direct command meets the dead man at the bier and calls him to rise.

THE THREAD

And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

John 11:43 · KJV

The stone is commanded away first; then Lazarus is called from within. The sequence makes opening the grave part of the encounter with death, not a detail skipped over by the call.

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