What Does Mark 12:20 Mean in the King James?
Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
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 verse measures a life by what has been sown forward: the man dies, and no seed remains.
THE MEANING
The man dies without a descendant to carry his line forward. Death and the absence of seed arrive together, making continuity the pressure beneath this family story.
THE ROOT
σπέρμα
sperma
GROWS FROM
σπείρω
speirō
To sow or scatter seed.
Greek σπέρμα (sperma) means both seed and offspring, tying descendants to what is sown. The English “seed” holds that connection, but the Greek word family makes it especially clear: a line of descendants is what a life has sown forward.
ALSO GROWS
speirō: To sow or scatter seed.
σπείρω
The action of sowing reveals seed as what is placed forward to grow.
spora: The act of sowing, or what is sown.
σπορά
This related word keeps the action and its outcome in one family, linking descendants with what a life plants.
ἀφῆκεν
aphēken
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
To let go, send away, or leave.
The KJV’s “left” is a form of ἀφίημι (aphiēmi), which can also mean to release or forgive. That wider range gives “left no seed” an added edge: the line names what is absent at the moment of letting go.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: Release or remission, including the release of a debt.
ἄφεσις
This related noun makes audible the release contained in the verb translated “left.”
aphiēmi: To release, remit, or forgive.
ἀφίημι
The same verb family links leaving behind with letting go.
THE PATTERN
Seed is Scripture’s image for life carried forward beyond its present bearer.
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:THE THREAD
Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.Both verses turn on σπέρμα (sperma, seed or offspring): verse 19 names the seed the brother is to raise, and verse 20 says the first brother leaves none. The repeated word makes verse 20 the case that tests the continuity named in verse 19.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us