What Does John 21:24 Mean in the King James?
This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.
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
One disciple’s witness becomes something a whole community can know through the words he writes.
THE MEANING
Knowing here moves through a chain: one disciple bears witness, the written account carries that witness, and a community recognizes the testimony as true. What reaches you is another person’s experience made shareable through words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that you can know only what you have witnessed firsthand: here, a shared “we” recognizes another person’s testimony as true.
THE ROOT
μαρτυρῶν
martyron
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
To bear witness or testify.
“testifieth” in this verse is martyron. The Greek joins the act of witnessing to the testimony that comes from it: the witness and the account belong to one word family. English separates them, while this shared root lets you see the written testimony as witness carried forward.
ALSO GROWS
martys: Witness.
μάρτυς
The person who witnesses shares the root with the act of testifying.
martyria: Testimony, witness.
μαρτυρία
The testimony is the witness expressed as a claim that others can receive.
γράψας
grapsas
GROWS FROM
γραφ-
graph-
To mark or write.
“wrote” in this verse is grapsas. Writing carries the witness beyond the moment of seeing. The verse holds the written account beside the living witness, so the testimony can be shared with people who were not there.
ALSO GROWS
graphē: Writing, a written text.
γραφή
The same root names the written form that carries the witness.
gramma: Letter, written character or document.
γράμμα
A witness can be carried in marks and words that another person can read.
ἀληθής
alēthēs
GROWS FROM
ληθ-/λανθαν- (lēth-/lanthan-)
Be hidden or escape notice; with the privative α-, ἀληθής is commonly connected with what is unhidden.
The word rendered “true” carries a shade of what is not concealed. Here, the testimony is written and recognized by a “we”: it is brought into the open and shared.
ALSO GROWS
lanthanō: Remain hidden, escape notice.
λανθάνω
This related word supplies the idea of what goes unnoticed or stays concealed.
lēthē: Forgetfulness, oblivion.
λήθη
The contrast with forgetting sharpens how written testimony preserves what was witnessed.
THE PATTERN
Witness becomes shareable when it is carried into testimony that others can receive and recognize.
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.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.“Wrote” in John 21:24 and “written” here come from the same Greek root, γράφω (graphō), to write. Together, the verses show writing carrying witness forward so that readers can encounter and receive what was testified.
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