What Does John 3:26 Mean in the King James?
And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.
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 report’s supposed competition is the fulfillment of John’s witness: people are moving toward the very one he named.
THE MEANING
You hear how quickly another person’s growing reach can sound like a threat: he immerses, and everyone goes to him. Yet “to whom thou barest witness” places that movement inside John’s testimony, because the people are approaching the very one he points to. The apparent loss of attention is also the visible direction of the witness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that another person’s growing reach makes your witness meaningless dissolves here: the people moving toward him are the fruit of the witness named in the verse.
THE ROOT
μεμαρτύρηκας
memartyrēkas
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρέω
martyreō
to testify, bear witness
This word belongs to the same family as μάρτυς (martys), a witness, and μαρτυρία (martyria), testimony. The attention moving toward Jesus does not erase John’s witness; it shows where that testimony points.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness; a person who testifies
μάρτυς
The witness is the one whose testimony directs attention beyond himself, as John’s does here.
martyria: testimony; a witness or attestation
μαρτυρία
John’s testimony remains present in the movement toward the person he testified about.
THE PATTERN
A witness fulfills its purpose when those who hear move toward the one it names.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.He must increase, but I must decrease.THE THREAD
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.John 1:7 uses the same μαρτυρέω word family: witness is testimony that directs others toward the Light. John 3:26 preserves that movement in the disciples’ own report, the one John testified to is now the one people approach.
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