What Does John 19:23 Mean in the King James?
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
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 soldiers divide Jesus’ garments, but the coat’s seamless weave makes wholeness visible inside the very scene of dispossession.
THE MEANING
The soldiers crucify Jesus and divide his garments, while one coat remains woven as a single piece from top to bottom. The scene places dispossession beside wholeness without using the whole garment to soften the violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that wholeness means nothing has been taken: the coat is taken, yet remains seamless.
THE ROOT
ἄραφος
araphos
GROWS FROM
ῥαπ-
sew, stitch
“without seam” in this verse is araphos. The word means unsewn: the coat has no join made by stitching. While the other garments are divided, this one is described as an uninterrupted weave.
ALSO GROWS
rhaptō: to sew, stitch
ῥάπτω
This is the action the word for “without seam” negates.
epirrhaptō: to sew on, patch
ἐπιρράπτω
This branch names cloth joined by stitching, the opposite construction from the coat described here.
μέρη
merē
GROWS FROM
μερ-
share, portion
The verse repeats this family in “four parts” and each soldier’s “part,” making division its explicit pattern. That repeated partition stands beside the coat described as one continuous weave.
ALSO GROWS
meros: a part, share, portion
μέρος
This is the singular form behind each soldier’s allotted share.
merizō: to divide, distribute into shares
μερίζω
This verb makes visible the action carried out on the garments.
THE PATTERN
The text makes wholeness visible by setting an unbroken whole beside division.
They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent.That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.THE THREAD
No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.The Greek verb translated “seweth” belongs to the same ῥαπ- (rhap-, sew or stitch) family as ἄραφος (araphos, unsewn). Mark describes cloth joined by stitching; John makes the absence of stitching part of the coat’s image of uninterrupted wholeness.
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