What Does Mark 13:16 Mean in the King James?
And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.
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 danger is not the garment left in the field but the backward turn required to reclaim it.
THE MEANING
When the moment to flee arrives, you face a choice between continuing toward safety and turning back for what is left behind. Even a garment is expendable when retrieving it risks the escape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that you must recover your possessions before you can move to safety.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστρέφω
epistrephō
GROWS FROM
στρεφ-
streph-
Turn, twist, change direction.
The Greek verb ἐπιστρέφω (epistrephō, turn back or return) is followed by ὀπίσω (opisō, behind), making the backward direction explicit. The verse exposes the turn itself as the danger: retrieving the garment means reversing the movement toward escape.
ALSO GROWS
strephō: Turn or twist.
στρέφω
The base verb names the change of direction that the verse forbids.
apostrephō: Turn away.
ἀποστρέφω
This related form keeps the same turning movement in view, showing how the shared stem carries direction.
THE PATTERN
At the point of flight, turning back to retrieve possessions can endanger the escape itself.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.THE THREAD
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.Matthew repeats the Greek wording ἐπιστρέφω ὀπίσω (epistrephō opisō, turn back behind) for returning to retrieve clothing. The shared phrase reveals the same urgent choice: keep moving toward escape, even when what remains behind is basic clothing.
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