What Does John 14:18 Mean in the King James?
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
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 promise is not simply that comfort arrives; the one who speaks refuses to leave you standing in the world as an orphan.
THE MEANING
You are not left as an orphan: he comes to you. His presence meets the fear of being without a parent or a place to belong. The promise is nearness, not distant consolation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that when the people you depend on are absent, you are ultimately fatherless and alone.
THE ROOT
ὀρφανούς
orphanous
GROWS FROM
ὀρφανός
orphanos
Orphaned, bereft of parents.
The word translated “comfortless” names the condition of being an orphan. The verse speaks to the deeper wound beneath a lack of comfort: feeling without a parent, protection, or belonging, and answers it with the promise, “I will come to you.”
ALSO GROWS
orphanizō: To make or leave someone an orphan.
ὀρφανίζω
This verb makes the word’s focus on the loss of parental care explicit.
orphania: Orphanhood; the state of being an orphan.
ὀρφανία
This related noun names the condition the promise says you will not be left in.
ἀφήσω
aphēsō
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), from ἀπό (apo) + ἵημι (hiēmi)
To send away or let go; by extension, to leave, release, or remit.
The verb behind “leave” carries the sense of sending away or letting go. Its word-family also names release and remission, holding together the refusal to abandon you and the opening of release elsewhere in the language.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, remission, or deliverance.
ἄφεσις
This noun from the same word-family appears in Luke 4:18 for deliverance to captives.
aphiēmi: To let go, leave, or remit; in context, to forgive.
ἀφίημι
The same verb can describe releasing a debt, linking forgiveness with the act of letting go.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence meets the experience of being forsaken by coming near and taking the abandoned into care.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.THE THREAD
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,The verb translated “leave” here, ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), belongs to the same word-family as ἄφεσις (aphesis), “release” or “deliverance.” Luke uses that noun for deliverance to captives, revealing a shared language of letting go and release.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us