What Does John 19:35 Mean in the King James?
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
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 verse links seeing, truthful testimony, knowing, and another person’s trust in one unbroken chain.
THE MEANING
Here, seeing becomes testimony, and the witness knows that what he says is true. That testimony reaches beyond the eyewitness and opens the way for the reader to trust now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that trust is possible only in what you have personally seen: a truthful witness can carry what they saw to you.
THE ROOT
μεμαρτύρηκεν
memartyrēken
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
To bear witness, testify, or give testimony.
“bare record / record” in this verse is memartyrēken. The two English uses come from the same Greek word family: the witness testifies, and the testimony is his witness made available to others. The verse presents the record as grounded in seeing, then carried outward in speech.
ALSO GROWS
martys: Witness
μάρτυς
Names the person who sees and can attest to what happened.
martyrion: Testimony or evidence
μαρτύριον
Shows how a witness’s seeing becomes something others can receive.
πιστεύσητε
pisteusēte
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust; to lean your full weight on what is reliable.
“believe” in this verse is pisteusēte. The witness’s testimony is meant to become more than information: it can be trusted and leaned on. The Greek family connects believing with trustworthiness, keeping the witness and the reader’s response in the same movement.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust
πίστις
Names the response the testimony invites: leaning your weight on what is attested.
pistos: Trustworthy, reliable
πιστός
Describes what makes a witness’s testimony fit to be trusted.
THE PATTERN
What is seen and truthfully told can carry trust beyond the person who witnessed it.
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;THE THREAD
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.The same Greek trust-family appears here: written testimony is given so the reader may lean their weight on what it reveals. Jesus’ name carries his nature, Yeshua, deliverance, so the testimony opens toward life in that nature.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us