What Does Luke 24:2 Mean in the King James?
And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
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 word for “sepulchre” belongs to the same Greek family as “remember,” so the stone is moved from a place named for memory just before remembrance is called forth.
THE MEANING
You find the tomb with its stone already rolled away; the verse begins with the barrier’s removal as a completed fact. The tomb’s name belongs to the language of remembrance, and the next line turns your attention to remembered words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the tomb remains sealed until the arriving women can move it: they find the stone already rolled away.
THE ROOT
μνημείου
mnēmeiou
GROWS FROM
μνη-
mnē-
Memory, remembrance; in this word, a tomb or memorial
“sepulchre” in this verse is mnēmeiou. The source form μνημείου (mnēmeiou, “of the tomb or memorial”) belongs to the memory family, rather than being only a location label. That family returns when the women are told to remember in verse 6, moving the scene from a stone displaced from a memorial to words brought back to mind.
ALSO GROWS
mnēmē: Memory, remembrance
μνήμη
This word shows the memory already carried in μνημεῖον (mnēmeion, “tomb or memorial”).
mimnēskomai: Remember, call to mind
μιμνήσκομαι
The related family appears in Luke 24:6 as μνήσθητε (mnēsthēte, “remember”), the next movement in the scene.
ἀποκεκυλισμένον
apokekylismenon
GROWS FROM
κυλ-
kyl-
To roll, turn, or roll along
This is a perfect passive form: the rolling is complete, and the stone remains in its moved state when the women arrive. The prefix ἀπο- (apo, “away”) makes the direction explicit while the root preserves the physical action inside “rolled away.”
ALSO GROWS
apokylio: Roll away
ἀποκυλίω
This is the verb family used for the stone being rolled from the tomb’s entrance.
proskylio: Roll toward or against
προσκυλίω
Mark 15:46 uses this related form when Joseph rolls the stone against the tomb, showing the same action can close or open a threshold.
λίθον
lithon
GROWS FROM
λιθ-
lith-
Stone
The Greek word names the object marking the threshold. Hebrew wordplay hears אֶבֶן (even, “stone”) with אָב (av, “father”) and בֵּן (ben, “son”), placing the father-son image at the grave’s boundary even as that boundary opens.
ALSO GROWS
lithoboleō: Stone or throw stones at
λιθοβολέω
The same stone can become an instrument of harm, while here it is the barrier whose removal opens the tomb.
lithostrōtos: Paved with stone
λιθόστρωτος
The root also names stone as a surface underfoot, not only as a barrier.
THE PATTERN
When a barrier is rolled away, a way to life, provision, or renewed belonging opens.
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.THE THREAD
He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,The word rendered “sepulchre” in verse 2 is μνημείου (mnēmeiou, “of the tomb or memorial”), from μνη- (mnē-, “memory or remembrance”); “remember” here is μνήσθητε (mnēsthēte, “remember”), from the same family. The opened place of remembrance is followed by words being brought back to mind.
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