What Does Mark 1:28 Mean in the King James?

And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.

Mark 1:28 · KJV

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

What the KJV calls his “fame” is literally the hearing about him: the encounter becomes a report that travels from ear to ear.

THE MEANING

An encounter with Jesus does not remain confined to the place where it begins; the hearing about him moves through the surrounding region. What one person hears becomes something others can hear too.

THE ROOT

ἀκοή

akoē

GROWS FROM

ἀκου-

akou-

Hear, listen; the noun can name the act of hearing or what is heard, a report or message.

English “fame” can sound like a settled reputation, but the Greek word ⁨ἀκοή⁩ (akoē, “hearing; report”) names what people hear as it passes between them. The verse pictures the news about Jesus moving outward through hearing and retelling.

ALSO GROWS

akouō: To hear or listen.

ἀκούω

The report begins as something people hear, tying its outward movement to the act of listening.

hypakoē: Hearing that responds; obedience.

ὑπακοή

The same word family can connect hearing with response, though this verse describes the report spreading rather than the hearers’ response.

THE PATTERN

A report turns a single encounter into a sound that travels beyond its place of origin.

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

Psalm 19:4 · KJVWords and sound move outward until they reach beyond their first place.

And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

Matthew 9:26 · KJVWhat people hear about an event becomes a report carried throughout the land.

For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.

1 Thessalonians 1:8 · KJVThe word sounds outward, and its reach becomes known in places beyond where it began.

THE THREAD

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:17 · KJV

Romans uses the same Greek noun ⁨ἀκοή⁩ (akoē, “hearing”) found behind “fame” here. Mark shows the hearing about Jesus spreading; Romans reveals hearing as the way the word reaches another person.

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