What Does John 7:38 Mean in the King James?
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
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
Trust opens the inner body as the place where received life becomes life flowing outward.
THE MEANING
As you trust Jesus, life does more than reach you; it moves through your interior and outward into the world. Your inner life becomes a source point for living water, joining receiving and overflowing in one movement. The verse speaks of divine life as present and active within you now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that spiritual life can only reach you from outside; here, trust opens the inner place from which it flows.
THE ROOT
πιστεύων
pisteuōn
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust; lean your full weight on.
“believeth” in this verse is pisteuōn. The verse’s movement begins with trust, a lived leaning toward Jesus. Trust and inward flow meet in the image: the person who trusts becomes the place from which the waters pour.
ALSO GROWS
pisteuō: Trust, entrust.
πιστεύω
This verb describes the trusting at the beginning of the verse.
pistis: Trust, reliance.
πίστις
The related noun carries the same rooted sense of leaning one’s weight on another.
κοιλίας
koilias
GROWS FROM
κοιλ-
koil-
Hollow; cavity.
“belly” in this verse is koilias. The word pictures the body’s inner hollow, the place from which the rivers emerge. The image locates the flow within the person, not at some distant source.
ALSO GROWS
koilia: Belly, womb, inner cavity.
κοιλία
The verse names this inner place as the source from which the rivers flow.
koilos: Hollow.
κοῖλος
This related word makes the image of the body’s interior cavity more visible.
ζῶντος
zōntos
GROWS FROM
ζω-
zō-
Live; be alive.
The adjective names the water as alive, while the surrounding verb supplies its motion: the image joins life and flow. The next verse identifies this living water with the breath received by those who trust.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: Life.
ζωή
The shared root ties the living water to life itself.
zōopoieō: Make alive; give life.
ζωοποιέω
This related verb shows the root’s connection to life becoming active.
THE PATTERN
Divine life flows outward from its source, and wherever its waters arrive, life spreads.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.THE THREAD
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)This next verse names the living water as the breath, the Greek πνεῦμα (pneuma, breath), and says those trusting Jesus receive it. It repeats πιστεύω (pisteuō, trust), joining the river’s inward flow to trust and to the breath moving within.
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