What Does John 6:4 Mean in the King James?
And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.
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
“Nigh” makes Passover the threshold for the bread that follows: provision arrives within the story of release.
THE MEANING
Passover stands near, so the coming bread carries the shape of deliverance into the reader’s present hunger. The verse places release and provision together at the threshold.
THE ROOT
ἐγγύς
engýs
GROWS FROM
ἐγγυ-
Near, close at hand in space or time.
English “nigh” can sound like a bare date marker, while this Greek word belongs to a family that also means drawing near and nearer. Passover is an approaching threshold, so the sign that follows unfolds under the nearness of deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
engízō: Draw near; approach.
ἐγγίζω
This related verb makes nearness a movement toward something, illuminating Passover as an approaching threshold.
engýteros: Nearer; closer.
ἐγγύτερος
This comparative form shows the root can express increasing closeness, not only a date on a calendar.
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ
GROWS FROM
פסח
Pass over; spare, the action named by Passover.
“Passover” in this verse is pesaḥ. The name carries the Hebrew verb for passing over to spare. That root places release at the center of the approaching feast and frames the bread scene through deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
pāsaḥ: Pass over; spare.
פָּסַח
This verb names the action carried in the feast’s name: being passed over and spared.
páscha: Passover; the feast named in the verse.
πάσχα
This Greek form is borrowed from the Hebrew name and carries its root into John’s sentence.
THE PATTERN
A shared meal carries deliverance into the present through visible provision.
And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.THE THREAD
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.The root פסח (pāsaḥ, “pass over, spare”) appears here as the action carried in the feast’s name. John places Passover near the bread sign, so the coming provision stands within that same pattern of release.
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