What Does John 5:28 Mean in the King James?
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
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 word for graves carries the sense of memorial places, yet no one held there is beyond hearing his voice.
THE MEANING
This promise meets you now with a coming hour that reaches beyond every grave. All who are there hear his voice; death does not place a person beyond its reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that death makes a person unreachable is undone: even those in the graves hear his voice.
THE ROOT
ἀκούσουσιν
akousousin
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
akou-
To hear or listen; in related words, hearing can carry a responsive sense.
“hear” in this verse is akousousin. English can make hearing sound passive, but this word family also reaches toward taking in and responding to what is heard. Here, everyone in the graves is within hearing of his voice.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; a report
ἀκοή
The branch shows hearing as both reception and what is heard, keeping the focus on the voice reaching its hearers.
hypakoē: Obedience; responsive hearing
ὑπακοή
This related word carries hearing toward response, revealing a wider resonance in the promise that the graves hear his voice.
μνημείοις
mnēmeiois
GROWS FROM
μνημ-
mnēm-
Remembering or calling to mind.
The Greek word translated “graves” belongs to the family of remembrance and memorials. The verse places hearers in the very places named for remembrance, and says his voice reaches them there.
ALSO GROWS
mimnēskomai: To remember or recall
μιμνῄσκομαι
This verb makes the root’s connection to memory explicit, illuminating the memorial sense inside the word for graves.
mnēmosynon: A memorial or reminder
μνημόσυνον
This branch shares the idea of remembrance and shows why the graves’ name carries more than the image of a burial place.
THE PATTERN
The divine voice reaches into death and summons the dead to hear.
Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:THE THREAD
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.John 5:28 uses φωνήν (phōnēn, voice), and John 11:43 uses φωνῇ (phōnē, voice), forms of the same Greek word. One tomb gives the voice a name to call; John 5:28 opens the summons to all who are in the graves.
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