What Does John 12:5 Mean in the King James?
Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
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 question invokes people brought low by need to make a case about a gift, and the next verse reveals that even the language of compassion can cover taking.
THE MEANING
You hear a morally persuasive question: why not turn a costly ointment into money for people in need? The Greek word for “poor” carries the image of people brought low and dependent on help. The next verse reveals that this appeal to generosity can conceal the speaker’s own taking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Concern for people in need does not, by itself, prove a generous heart; this scene names theft beneath the claim.
THE ROOT
πτωχοῖς
ptōchois
GROWS FROM
πτώσσω
ptōssō
To crouch or cower; the word family carries the image of someone brought low and dependent.
English “poor” can sound like a broad financial category, while this word-family evokes someone reduced to need. That sharpens the question: people in acute need are invoked in a price calculation, and the next verse exposes the speaker’s motive.
ALSO GROWS
ptōcheia: The condition of poverty or destitution, as in 2 Corinthians 8:2.
πτωχεία
It names the condition behind the people called poor here: a state of need, not just an abstract label.
ptōcheuō: To be or become poor, as in 2 Corinthians 8:9.
πτωχεύω
This branch makes the word-family dynamic: poverty can describe someone brought into a state of need.
THE PATTERN
Concern for people in need becomes real when provision reaches them.
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?THE THREAD
This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.John 12:6 repeats πτωχοῖς (ptōchois, poor or destitute) from this question. It exposes the gap between invoking people in need and caring for them: here, the stated concern conceals the speaker’s taking.
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