What Does Luke 21:11 Mean in the King James?
And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
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 verse gathers earthquakes, hunger, disease, terror, and heavenly signs into one field of upheaval that reaches both the ground beneath you and what the sky reveals.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to a reader whose sense of stability can be struck across several layers at once: the ground, food, bodies, and the sky. It names terrifying sights and signs together, holding fear and meaning in the same scene without explaining either away.
THE ROOT
σεισμοί
seismoi
GROWS FROM
σείω (σει-)
To shake or cause to tremble.
“earthquakes” in this verse is seismoi. English “earthquake” sounds like a disturbance confined to the ground; the Greek σεισμός (seismós) carries the sense of shaking itself, from σείω (seíō), “to shake.” The great shaking opens the verse, then stands beside famine, plague, frightening sights, and signs from heaven.
ALSO GROWS
seismós: Earthquake; a shaking.
σεισμός
The noun names the upheaval that opens the verse.
seíō: To shake or move violently.
σείω
The verb reveals the action held inside the word for earthquake.
σημεῖα
sēmeia
GROWS FROM
σημ- (sēm-, from σῆμα)
A mark, sign, or signal.
The Greek σημεῖα (sēmeia) belongs to the word family of marks and signals. The signs from heaven are named as indications, things that point and can be read, not only as sights to behold.
ALSO GROWS
sēma: A mark or sign.
σῆμα
This is the simple sign-word at the heart of the family.
sēmainō: To signify or indicate.
σημαίνω
This branch makes explicit the pointing or indicating carried by a sign.
THE PATTERN
When the created order is shaken, scripture pairs disturbances on earth with signs in the heavens.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;THE THREAD
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.Matthew uses the same Greek word σεισμοί (seismoi, “earthquakes”) alongside famines and pestilences. The shared word links the two passages at the level of the original wording, with Luke placing the shaking first and then widening the scene to signs from heaven.
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