What Does John 3:24 Mean in the King James?
For John was not yet cast into prison.
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 “prison” is a guarded place (φυλακή, phylakē), so the verse marks the open interval before a body is placed under watch.
THE MEANING
John is not yet inside the guarded place; the restraint is named, but it has not closed around him. For you, “not yet” names the difference between a feared boundary and one already closed: the possibility is present, but the event is not.
THE ROOT
φυλακή
phylakē
GROWS FROM
φυλακ-
phylak-
Guarding, watching, keeping under watch.
“prison” in this verse is phylakē. The word carries the function of the place inside its name: φυλακή is where a body is kept under watch. The verse’s “not yet” holds open the interval before that guarded boundary closes around John.
ALSO GROWS
phylax: guard, watcher
φύλαξ
The guard is the person who keeps watch, revealing the human presence contained in the idea of a guarded place.
phylassō: guard, watch, keep
φυλάσσω
This verb names the act that gives the prison its character: keeping someone under watch.
βάλλω
ballō
GROWS FROM
βαλ-/βολ- (bal-/bol-)
To throw or cast; to put by throwing.
The verb makes confinement an imposed placing: a person is cast into the guarded place. Together with φυλακή (phylakē, guarded place), it joins the act of placement to the boundary that keeps watch.
ALSO GROWS
emballō: throw in, put in
ἐμβάλλω
The compound keeps the force of βάλλω while making the inward placement explicit.
bolē: a throw, cast, or shot
βολή
This noun preserves the root’s sense of forceful motion that the English “cast” also carries.
THE PATTERN
The text marks restraint as a threshold, naming both the interval before a witness is confined and the moment the boundary closes.
Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:THE THREAD
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:John 3:24 and Acts 16:23 use the same Greek verb, βάλλω (ballō, cast or throw), and the same noun, φυλακή (phylakē, guarded place or prison). John names the interval before that placing; Acts shows the body already inside the guarded boundary.
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