What Does John 4:3 Mean in the King James?
He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee.
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 Greek verb translated “left” also means “let go,” so the journey from Judea to Galilee carries release within its movement.
THE MEANING
The verse holds departure and release together: Jesus leaves Judea and goes again toward Galilee. The Greek verb translated “left” also carries the sense of letting go, so the movement has a depth beyond distance.
THE ROOT
ἀφῆκεν
aphēken
GROWS FROM
ἀφιη-/ἀφε- (aphiē-/aphe-)
Let go, release, send away, or leave.
The word translated “left” belongs to a Greek family that also names release and forgiveness. English presents the departure as movement between places; the shared root lets the act of leaving carry the added sense of loosening one’s hold.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release, dismissal, or forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This noun names release directly; in Luke 4:18 it is translated “deliverance,” revealing the same letting-go quality beneath “left.”
apheōntai: They have been released or forgiven.
ἀφέωνται
In John 20:23, the same verb family describes sins being forgiven, extending the word’s sense of release from leaving a place to letting an offense go.
THE PATTERN
Release makes movement possible: what is left behind gives way to another place or condition.
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,The Greek noun ἄφεσις (aphesis), meaning “release” or “deliverance,” comes from the same family as the verb translated “left” here. In John the word marks departure from Judea; in Luke it names captives being released, making the shared sense of letting go visible.
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