What Does Luke 22:41 Mean in the King James?
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
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 Greek pictures a body drawn away, but the stone’s cast gives that separation a limit: prayer begins in measured distance, not disappearance.
THE MEANING
Here, Jesus moves only a stone’s throw from his companions, sets his knees, and prays. The distance is real but measured; turning toward God happens while the others remain in the scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the idea that turning toward God requires everyone else to vanish: the separation is only a stone’s throw.
THE ROOT
ἀπεσπάσθη
apespásthē
GROWS FROM
σπάω
spáō
to draw or pull
Beneath “withdrawn” is the bodily image of being drawn or pulled away. The stone’s cast gives that pull a limit: a real separation held within measurable nearness.
ALSO GROWS
apospáō: draw away, pull off
ἀποσπάω
This is the verb whose passive form appears here, giving the withdrawal a physical image of being drawn away.
spasmós: a pulling, convulsion or spasm
σπασμός
It preserves the root’s sense of pulling, highlighting the bodily image without implying distress in this verse.
προσηύχετο
prosēucheto
GROWS FROM
εὔχομαι
eúchomai
to wish, vow, or pray; with pros, to pray toward
“prayed” in this verse is prosēucheto. The verb προσηύχετο (prosēucheto, he was praying) comes from προσεύχομαι (proseúchomai, pray toward), with εὔχομαι (eúchomai, wish or vow) at its center. The language holds prayer as an address directed toward God, happening here in the same body’s lowered posture.
ALSO GROWS
euchē: a prayer or vow
εὐχή
This noun keeps the word-family’s link between prayer and an expressed wish or vow.
proseuchē: prayer, an address toward God
προσευχή
The related noun makes the direction in the verb visible: prayer is speech turned toward God.
THE PATTERN
Prayer takes shape in the body: space, posture, or time gives an inward turning a visible form.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:THE THREAD
And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.The verb translated “prayed” shares the Greek root προσεύχομαι (proseúchomai, pray toward). Mark’s “went forward a little” echoes Luke’s measured distance, while falling to the ground makes the bodily turn more explicit.
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