What Does Mark 12:26 Mean in the King James?

And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

Mark 12:26 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The resurrection claim is hidden in one tense: God says, “I am” the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, even though they are dead.

THE MEANING

God’s present “I am” keeps Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob within the relationship Jesus names. The dead are the very ones the verse says are raised. The Greek word for “rise” also means to wake or rouse, joining resurrection to awakening.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Death turns a person’s relationship with God into a finished past.

THE ROOT

ἐγείρονται

egeirontai

GROWS FROM

ἐγείρω

egeirō

to wake, rouse, or raise up

The verb translated “rise” also describes waking someone from sleep. Its range holds awakening and being raised from death together, so resurrection is pictured as life roused from what looks like its end.

ALSO GROWS

egeirousin: they wake or rouse

ἐγείρουσιν

In Mark 4:38, the disciples use this verb to wake Jesus, showing its ordinary sense of awakening.

ēgerthē: he was raised

ἠγέρθη

In Mark 16:6, this form describes Jesus being raised, showing the same verb reaching beyond waking from sleep to resurrection.

יִצְחָק

Yitzḥaq

GROWS FROM

צחק

tz-ḥ-q

to laugh

Isaac’s name carries the sound and sense of laughter. This name, born from laughter, remains within God’s present self-identification even as Jesus speaks about the dead being raised.

ALSO GROWS

tseḥoq: laughter

צְחוֹק

In Genesis 21:6, Sarah says God has made laughter for her; the name Isaac holds that same root.

tzāḥaq: laughed

צָחַק

In Genesis 18:12, Sarah laughs, another form of the root carried in Isaac’s name.

THE PATTERN

God’s life is shown in raising people from death, where death appears to close the story.

The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.

1 Samuel 2:6 · KJVLife and rising remain within God’s power even at the grave.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Daniel 12:2 · KJVThe dead are described as sleepers who awake, echoing the waking sense of “rise.”

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

John 11:25 · KJVJesus speaks of resurrection and life as present in himself, carrying the same claim into his own words.

THE THREAD

Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

Exodus 3:6 · KJV

These are the words Jesus cites: God identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their present place in God’s own self-identification is the foundation of Jesus’ claim that the dead rise.

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