What Does Mark 11:18 Mean in the King James?
And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.
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 makes Jesus dangerous to the leaders is the crowd’s astonishment at his teaching, and their fear turns that response into a search for his ruin.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the moment when teaching moves people so deeply that those holding authority experience it as a threat. The leaders fear Jesus because the crowd is astonished by his teaching, and they search for a way to destroy him. The passage holds both the public wonder and the lethal intent in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that public wonder is always harmless to those who hold authority: here, the leaders’ fear becomes a plot against the teacher whose words move the crowd.
THE ROOT
ἀπολέσωσιν
apolēsōsin
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
To perish, be lost, or bring to ruin.
The verb behind “destroy” belongs to the same word family used for what is lost or perishes. That makes the leaders’ intent stark: they seek Jesus’ ruin, while the same root elsewhere names what Jesus comes to seek.
ALSO GROWS
apollymi: To perish, be lost, or bring to ruin.
ἀπόλλυμι
This verb family holds both perishing and causing ruin, giving “destroy him” the force of seeking his end.
apolōlos: Lost, or having perished.
ἀπολωλός
This is the word behind “that which was lost” in Luke 19:10, where Jesus seeks what is lost.
ἐξεπλήσσετο
ekseplēsseto
GROWS FROM
πλήσσω
plēssō
To strike; in the compound, to strike out or astound.
“astonished” in this verse is ekseplēsseto. The crowd’s astonishment is expressed with a verb built on the idea of striking. His teaching lands with such force that the people are moved, and that response is precisely what the leaders fear.
ALSO GROWS
plēssō: To strike or smite.
πλήσσω
This is the verbal base of the word for astonishment, carrying an image of impact into the crowd’s reaction.
ekplēssō: To amaze or astonish.
ἐκπλήσσω
This is the verb family used for the crowd’s response to Jesus’ teaching; their amazement triggers the leaders’ fear.
THE PATTERN
When teaching takes hold among the people, established authority can experience the response as a threat and move against its source.
Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.THE THREAD
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.The word translated “lost” belongs to the same Greek verb family as Mark’s “destroy”: ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), meaning to perish, be lost, or bring to ruin. Mark shows leaders seeking Jesus’ ruin; Luke says the Son of Man comes to seek and deliver what is lost, turning the shared root into a striking counter-movement.
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