What Does John 20:4 Mean in the King James?
So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to 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 word for the tomb is also the word for a memorial, so the disciples are racing toward a place whose name already holds remembrance.
THE MEANING
Your pace can differ from the person beside you even as you move toward the same encounter. Arrival marks a threshold; by itself, it does not tell you what you have found.
THE ROOT
μνημεῖον
mnēmeion
GROWS FROM
μνη-
mnē-
Remember; keep in mind.
The Greek word translated “sepulchre” also means a memorial or place of remembrance, from the family of μνήμη (mnēmē, “memory”). The disciples race toward a place defined by remembrance, while the meaning of that remembrance remains open until someone enters and sees.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory, remembrance.
μνήμη
This related word makes the tomb’s memorial sense audible inside the English “sepulchre.”
mnēmoneuō: Remember, call to mind.
μνημονεύω
This verb from the same word family links the place they reach with the act of remembering.
μαθητής
mathētēs
GROWS FROM
μανθ-
manth-
Learn; come to understand.
The person called a disciple is, in the word itself, a learner. He reaches the tomb first, but this verse does not equate arriving first with having already understood.
ALSO GROWS
manthanō: Learn, come to understand.
μανθάνω
This verb is the source of the learner-language in “disciple.”
mathēma: A lesson; something learned.
μάθημα
This related word keeps learning in view at the threshold where the disciples have arrived.
THE PATTERN
A shared direction can hold different speeds, and scripture measures the way by more than speed alone.
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,THE THREAD
Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.The same word, μνημεῖον (mnēmeion), names the tomb as a place of remembrance. Here the disciple who arrives first enters, sees, and believes: the movement from reaching the threshold to encountering what is there becomes explicit.
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