What Does Judges 13:18 Mean in the King James?
And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?
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 messenger’s name is called “secret” because it opens onto a nature too wondrous to contain in a label.
THE MEANING
When you reach for a name that would make the messenger fully graspable, the answer meets you with wonder that exceeds your grasp. The question is not dismissed; it reveals that a name can point toward a nature without enclosing it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that naming something gives you full possession of what it is.
THE ROOT
פֶּלִאי
pelî
GROWS FROM
פלא
To be extraordinary or marvelous, beyond ordinary reach or comprehension.
The word rendered “secret” carries the sense of the extraordinary, something beyond full comprehension. The question asks for a name, שֵׁם (shem, name as nature), and the answer lets that name point to a nature too wondrous for a label to contain.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder, marvel.
פֶּלֶא
This noun from the same root appears in the name “Wonderful” in Isaiah 9:6, where a name also opens onto a nature marked by wonder.
niflaʾot: Wonders, marvelous deeds.
נִפְלָאוֹת
This plural form names wonders that exceed ordinary human reach, showing how the root holds both what is beyond comprehension and what is encountered as marvel.
THE PATTERN
What exceeds human grasp is marked by wonder rather than made smaller by naming.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?THE THREAD
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.“Wonderful” in Isaiah carries the same פלא root family as the messenger’s “secret” name. In both verses, a name opens onto a nature marked by wonder rather than reducing that nature to a familiar label.
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