What Does Mark 10:7 Mean in the King James?
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
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
Marriage is pictured as both leaving one bond and adhering to another, so the new union becomes a center of belonging.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of a bond formed through movement away from the parental household and toward a wife. The new attachment changes where a person’s closest belonging is centered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that marriage is merely an added relationship that leaves the order of belonging untouched.
THE ROOT
προσκολληθήσεται
proskollēthēsetai
GROWS FROM
κολλάω
kollaō
To glue or join closely.
“cleave” in this verse is proskollēthēsetai. The verb carries the image of adhesion: cleaving is a joining that binds, not simply an inward feeling. Its other uses show that the force of the word lies in the bond itself and what becomes joined.
ALSO GROWS
kollaō: Glue or join.
κολλάω
This is the verb’s basic form, revealing the adhesive sense beneath “cleave.”
kollōmenos: Being joined.
κολλώμενος
In 1 Corinthians 6:16 the same verb describes a person joined to a prostitute and becoming one body, showing the binding force of the word without making every bond equivalent.
καταλείψει
kataleipsei
GROWS FROM
λείπω
leipō
To leave, be absent, or lack.
“leave” in this verse is kataleipsei. The verse pairs departure with adhesion: leaving one household makes room for a new center of belonging. The wider verb family also uses this root for what is lacking, giving departure the sense of a real change in presence and relation.
ALSO GROWS
kataleipō: Leave behind.
καταλείπω
This compound is the form used here, naming the departure that accompanies the new bond.
leipō: Lack or be short of.
λείπω
Luke 18:22 uses this verb for what the rich ruler still lacks; the shared root links leaving with an absence that changes what remains.
THE PATTERN
A bond takes shape through leaving one attachment and joining another, and that joining creates real unity.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.THE THREAD
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.The word translated “joined” comes from the same Greek verb family as “cleave” here. That shared root reveals the force of the image: joining binds, and the nature of the bond matters.
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