What Does John 5:14 Mean in the King James?
Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
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 healing is real, and so is the warning: being made whole does not make a return to what harms you harmless.
THE MEANING
You are addressed in a moment of restored wholeness: the healing is real, and the warning is also real. Continuing in the missing can bring something worse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that once you are made whole, nothing worse can happen to you again.
THE ROOT
ἁμάρτανε
hamartane
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss or err.
“sin” in this verse is hamartane. The Greek verb names a miss that can continue, rather than only a fixed label. The warning speaks to the consequence of continuing in that miss.
ALSO GROWS
hamartia: Missing, error
ἁμαρτία
The related noun shows that the warning and the broader idea of missing grow from the same word family.
hamartēma: A wrong act or error
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun makes the word family concrete in particular acts of missing.
ὑγιὴς
hygiēs
GROWS FROM
ὑγι-
hygi-
Sound, healthy.
“made whole” in this verse is hygiēs. The word rendered “whole” names sound health. The verse holds that restored health and the warning about what may follow can both be true.
ALSO GROWS
hygianō: To be healthy or sound
ὑγιαίνω
The related verb shows the same language of health in a continuing state.
hygieia: Health
ὑγίεια
This noun names the condition that the word for “whole” points toward.
THE PATTERN
Restoration and escape are real, yet returning to what harms can deepen the harm.
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.THE THREAD
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.John’s verb ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō, “to miss”) and Peter’s noun ἁμαρτία (hamartia, “missing”) belong to the same Greek word family. Peter places that missing beside healing, opening John’s warning as a question of what a restored life no longer returns to.
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