What Does John 11:52 Mean in the King James?
And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
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 scattered are not outside God’s family; their scatteredness is the very distance the gathering crosses.
THE MEANING
God’s purpose reaches beyond one nation: the scattered children of God are gathered into one. Their dispersion does not cancel their belonging; the gathering reaches across the distances that divide them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s family is limited to the people who already look like my own community.
THE ROOT
συναγάγῃ
synagagē
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
To lead or bring.
“gather together” in this verse is synagagē. The word for gathering carries the sense of bringing people together. The verse presents oneness as something formed by gathering those who are apart.
ALSO GROWS
synagō: Gather or bring together
συνάγω
This verb is the form from which the verse’s word for gathering comes.
synagōgē: Gathering or assembly
συναγωγή
The gathering becomes a shared assembly: a people brought together.
διεσκορπισμένα
dieskorpismena
GROWS FROM
σκορπίζω
skorpizō
To scatter or disperse.
“scattered abroad” in this verse is dieskorpismena. The word pictures people in a state of dispersion, not simply people who happen to live far away. The verse holds scattering and gathering together: their oneness reaches across a real separation.
ALSO GROWS
diaskorpizō: Scatter throughout or disperse
διασκορπίζω
This compound verb is the source of the verse’s word for those scattered abroad.
skorpizō: Scatter or disperse
σκορπίζω
In Matthew 12:30, this same verb describes what happens when people are scattered rather than gathered.
THE PATTERN
Belonging gathers those scattered across boundaries into one shared people.
As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.THE THREAD
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!The same gather-root appears in Jesus’ image of a hen drawing her young beneath her wings. Here, that gathering reaches the children of God scattered abroad, bringing them into one.
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