What Does John 19:42 Mean in the King James?
There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
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 Greek word for “sepulchre” also carries the sense of a memorial: the place of burial is already a place of remembrance.
THE MEANING
Jesus’ body is laid in a nearby tomb as the preparation day closes the available time. The grave is named with a word from the family of remembering, holding burial and remembrance together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This unsettles the belief that burial makes a person disappear into mere absence: the word for the tomb also carries the sense of remembrance.
THE ROOT
μνημεῖον
mnēmeion
GROWS FROM
μνη
mnē
remembering, memory
“sepulchre” in this verse is mnēmeion. The Greek word for a tomb belongs to the language of remembering. The burial place is also named as a memorial, so the verse holds physical absence and remembrance in the same word-family.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: memory, remembrance
μνήμη
This branch makes the tomb’s memorial sense visible within the same Greek family.
mnēmosynon: memorial, something that calls a person or deed to mind
μνημόσυνον
This word-family also names an act preserved in remembrance, linking burial with the continuing memory of a life.
ἔθηκαν
ethēkan
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
put, place, set down
“laid” in this verse is ethēkan. The verb says that Jesus is placed in the tomb, while the same Greek verb can describe laying down one’s life. The word holds a body’s placement and the giving of life within one root.
ALSO GROWS
thesis: a placing, position
θέσις
It carries the root’s sense of setting something in a particular place.
thema: something placed or set; a subject
θέμα
It shows how what is set down can also become what is set before the mind.
THE PATTERN
A life can remain present through what continues to be remembered.
Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.THE THREAD
Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.The Greek word translated “memorial,” μνημόσυνον (mnēmosynon), belongs to the same remembering word-family as μνημεῖον (mnēmeion), “sepulchre.” One verse names a deed preserved in remembrance; the other gives Jesus’ burial place a memory-bearing name.
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