What Does John 2:1 Mean in the King James?
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
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
John describes the wedding as something that “came into being,” placing the birth of a new union beside the name whose nature is deliverance.
THE MEANING
A wedding comes into being in an ordinary place, and Jesus’ mother is there. The name Jesus carries the nature of deliverance, so the scene holds that meaning before any sign is described.
THE ROOT
ἐγένετο
egeneto
GROWS FROM
γεν-
Come into being, arise, be born; γεν- is the aorist stem of γίνομαι, “become.”
The KJV’s “there was” can sound like a static setting, while ἐγένετο says the wedding came into being. Its root also grows into words for birth, origin, and generation, so this union is presented as something newly taking shape.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: Origin, birth, or coming into being.
γένεσις
It shares the γεν- stem and makes the sense of emergence in ἐγένετο more visible.
genea: Generation, a people linked through descent.
γενεά
It carries the same root into the generations that come from what has come into being.
genos: Kind, stock, or offspring.
γένος
It shows the root extending from an event’s beginning to the people and lineage that follow.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver, rescue, bring out into spaciousness.
“Jesus” in this verse is Yeshua. The name is tied to the root of deliverance: it names a nature, not merely a person. That nature is already present in this scene as the wedding comes into being.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver or rescue.
יָשַׁע
This verbal form gives the root’s movement: bringing someone out of what holds them.
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
It names the result of the root’s movement and shares its consonants, ישע.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses marriage to make union visible, from the joining of two people to images of God rejoicing with a people.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.THE THREAD
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.John returns to the wedding’s language through the bride, the bridegroom, and their shared rejoicing. The scene at Cana gives that relational image a place in the story before John makes it explicit here.
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