What Does John 18:32 Mean in the King James?
That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die.
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 manner of Jesus’ death is itself the sign that makes his spoken word visible.
THE MEANING
Jesus’ death is not mute: its particular form makes the words he has spoken visible. What is done to him carries meaning within the event itself, joining a spoken saying to its fulfillment. The verse lets the reader see how an event can give a word its visible shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A death can be nothing but a meaningless defeat; here its particular form bears a meaning already spoken.
THE ROOT
σημαίνων
sēmainōn
GROWS FROM
σημ-
sēm-
Sign or mark; making something known through a sign.
English can make “signifying” sound like a narrator’s aside, but the Greek word carries the image of a sign or mark. Jesus’ death is presented as a sign within the event itself: its particular form points back to his spoken word.
ALSO GROWS
sēma: sign, mark, or token
σῆμα
This noun gives the word family its concrete image: something that marks or points beyond itself.
sēmeion: sign or marker
σημεῖον
The same sign-family shows how the manner of Jesus’ death can disclose what his saying means.
πληρωθῇ
plērōthē
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
Fill; bring to fullness.
“fulfilled” in this verse is plērōthē. The word pictures more than a forecast proving correct: a saying is brought to fullness in what happens. The event gives the words their complete visible form.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: fill, fulfill, or bring to completion
πληρόω
This verb-family links fulfillment with something being filled out to its full measure.
plērōma: fullness
πλήρωμα
The related noun makes the image plain: the spoken saying reaches fullness as the event gives it shape.
THE PATTERN
Words spoken beforehand can make an event’s particular shape legible when it arrives.
This he said, signifying what death he should die.And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.THE THREAD
This he said, signifying what death he should die.The same Greek sign-verb links this verse to John 18:32, and the wording is nearly identical. Jesus’ saying does not merely predict a death; it gives that death a readable form.
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