What Does Luke 9:7 Mean in the King James?
Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;
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
Herod’s perplexity begins when the report of John’s rising makes a supposedly finished death part of the present again.
THE MEANING
You can hear the same events and receive explanations that do not fit together. Here, the report that John has risen leaves Herod unable to settle what the works mean. The verse lets that perplexity remain open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that death makes a person’s story finished: John’s reported rising brings his name into the present question again.
THE ROOT
διηπόρει
diēporei
GROWS FROM
πόρος
poros
A passage or way through; also a means or resource.
“perplexed” in this verse is diēporei. The Greek verb pictures more than confusion: Herod has no clear passage from what he hears to a settled answer. The same word-family can describe either a way forward or an impasse, a contrast English leaves hidden.
ALSO GROWS
aporia: Perplexity; an impasse or lack of a way forward.
ἀπορία
This branch names the experience of having no visible path through conflicting reports.
euporeō: To have means; to be able to provide.
εὐπορέω
The same πόρος word-family can describe having a way or resources, exposing the contrast with Herod’s inability to find a way through what he hears.
ἠγέρθη
ēgerthē
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
To wake, rouse, or raise.
The verb translated “risen” also means to wake or rouse someone; resurrection is expressed as being raised into wakefulness. Here it remains a report, yet its wording gives the rumor a force Herod cannot simply file under the past.
ALSO GROWS
egeire: Wake up; rise.
ἔγειρε
This command uses the same verb for waking or rising, making the link between awakening and being raised explicit.
egersis: A rising; resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This noun from the same word-family names the rising that the report attributes to John.
THE PATTERN
Death does not always close the story; Scripture repeatedly depicts the dead being raised into life again.
And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:THE THREAD
Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.In 9:7, some say John has been raised; here Jesus says he himself will be raised after suffering and death. The same Greek verb, ἐγείρω (egeirō), links the confused report to what Jesus says will happen.
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