What Does John 20:11 Mean in the King James?
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
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” belongs to the word-family of remembering, and Mary’s grief bends toward that memorial-place instead of turning away.
THE MEANING
You can stand outside the meaning of a loss and still find your attention bending toward it. Mary’s tears do not make her turn away; she stoops and looks into the memorial-place. Grief remains present before understanding arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that grief makes attention impossible is undone here: Mary weeps and looks at once.
THE ROOT
μνημεῖον
mnēmeion
GROWS FROM
μνη- (mnē-), the memory-word family, as in μιμνήσκω (mimnēskō)
Remembering, memory, or bringing something to mind; μνημεῖον means a tomb or memorial-place.
The word translated “sepulchre” carries the language of memory within it. Mary looks into a place of death whose name also holds the sense of remembrance.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory or remembrance.
μνήμη
This cognate shows the memorial sense carried by the word for the tomb.
emnēsthēsan: They remembered.
ἐμνήσθησαν
Luke uses a related memory-word when the women recall Jesus’ words, joining the tomb’s language with remembrance.
παρέκυψεν
parekypsen
GROWS FROM
κύπτω (kyptō) in παρακύπτω (parakyptō)
To bend or stoop; παρακύπτω means to stoop and peer into something.
“looked into” in this verse is parekypsen. The verb holds the bend and the gaze in one action: Mary stoops to peer into the tomb. The same verb can describe careful attention to instruction, linking the physical act of looking in with close regard.
ALSO GROWS
parakypsas: Stooping to look into the tomb.
παρακύψας
The same verb describes another gaze into the tomb before understanding is complete.
parakypsas: Bending down to examine what is inside.
παρακύψας
Peter’s matching action shows that the verb means more than a passing glance.
parakypsas: Looking closely into something.
παρακύψας
The same word describes sustained attention to instruction, extending the image beyond a physical tomb.
ἔκλαιεν
eklaien
GROWS FROM
κλαι- (klai-), from κλαίω (klaiō)
To weep or lament aloud.
This word presents grief as an expressed lament, not merely an inward state. The same verb describes Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, so weeping and clear attention can coexist.
ALSO GROWS
klaiousan: Weeping; the same verb describes Mary at Lazarus’s tomb.
κλαίουσαν
The shared verb keeps Mary’s grief within the same vocabulary of lament used elsewhere in John.
eklausen: Wept or lamented.
ἔκλαυσεν
The same verb describes Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, showing that tears are not a sign that attention has disappeared.
THE PATTERN
Seeing more begins when attention turns toward what is not yet clear.
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.THE THREAD
And they remembered his words,John calls the tomb μνημεῖον (mnēmeion, “memorial-place”), from the same Greek memory-word family as Luke’s “remembered.” The connection joins looking into the place of loss with recalling words that still speak.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us