What Does Mark 1:18 Mean in the King James?
And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
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 same Greek verb that says they leave their nets also says a man’s sins are forgiven: both are acts of release.
THE MEANING
Following changes what their hands are holding: the nets that represent familiar work and security no longer set their direction. The verse speaks now wherever a new path becomes real before the whole road is visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that release comes only after something has stopped being useful: the nets remain, but they no longer determine the brothers’ direction.
THE ROOT
ἀφέντες
aphéntes
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
Send away, release, or leave behind.
“Forsook” can sound like simple abandonment, but ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, “send away; let go”) also names forgiveness and release elsewhere in Mark. The same verb joins leaving the nets with releasing what weighs on a person.
ALSO GROWS
aphíentai: Are released or forgiven.
ἀφίενται
The same verb family describes sins being released, linking the disciples’ leaving with forgiveness.
áphesis: Release or remission.
ἄφεσις
This related noun names release for captives, extending the root’s movement from letting go to freedom.
THE PATTERN
A new direction becomes visible when an old source of security no longer holds the center.
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.THE THREAD
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.Mark 1:18 uses ἀφέντες (aphéntes, “having let go/left”); Mark 2:5 uses ἀφίενται (aphíentai, “are forgiven/released”), from ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, “send away; let go”). English gives the actions different names, while the Greek connects both through release.
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