What Does John 4:22 Mean in the King James?
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
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 verse separates worship from knowing, and names the Jewish people as the source through which deliverance comes.
THE MEANING
Worship can be real while its object remains unknown. The deliverance named here comes through the Jewish people, carried through a people and a story beyond your own making. The verse holds both truths together: worship does not itself prove knowledge, and deliverance has a particular source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sincere worship, by itself, means you know what you worship.
THE ROOT
σωτηρία
sōtēria
GROWS FROM
σῴζω
sōzō
To rescue, preserve, or deliver from danger.
English “salvation” can sound like an abstract condition; this Greek word-family centers on rescuing or bringing safely through. Here, deliverance is not detached from a people: its source is named as the Jews.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēr: Deliverer, savior.
σωτήρ
The related noun names the one who brings deliverance, keeping the focus on rescue rather than an abstract status.
diasōzō: Bring safely through, rescue.
διασῴζω
This compound carries the same rescue-root into the image of being brought through danger, illuminating the movement contained in “salvation.”
THE PATTERN
God’s deliverance reaches all peoples through the Jewish people and Israel’s story.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.THE THREAD
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.Romans uses the same Greek word for “salvation” as John 4:22. John names its source as the Jews; Romans shows its reach extending to the Greek as well.
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