What Does Mark 15:23 Mean in the King James?
And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.
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 separates what is offered from what is taken in: the cup reaches him, but he does not receive it.
THE MEANING
An offer can be present without being received. Here, wine mixed with myrrh is given to Jesus, but he does not take it; the giver’s action and the receiver’s action remain distinct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that an offer has already been accepted simply because it is placed within reach.
THE ROOT
ἔλαβεν
elaben
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
To take, receive, or lay hold of.
The Greek verb keeps an act of taking at the center: the cup’s presence at his lips is not the same as its being received. The offer does not become reception by arriving.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: To take, receive, or obtain.
λαμβάνω
This is the verb behind the refusal: what is offered is not necessarily taken in.
paralambanō: To receive or take along.
παραλαμβάνω
This compound appears in John 1:11, where his own do not receive him, extending the same taking-language from a cup to a person.
katalambanō: To seize, grasp, or comprehend.
καταλαμβάνω
This branch makes the root’s active sense clear: receiving involves taking hold, not merely being near what is offered.
ἔδωκαν
edōkan
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give, grant, or put into another’s hands.
“gave” in this verse is edōkan. The same give-family reaches from an offered drink to a handover: in Mark 15:15, Pilate ‘delivered’ Jesus, using παραδίδωμι, a compound of this root. The small act of giving the cup sits within the larger act of giving him over.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: To hand over or deliver up.
παραδίδωμι
Mark 15:15 uses this compound when Pilate delivers Jesus to be crucified, linking the chapter’s giving language with the handover.
metadidōmi: To share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
This branch shows the give-family can name what passes from one person to another, including provision.
THE PATTERN
An offer does not enter a life by arriving; receiving or refusing remains a distinct act.
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.He came unto his own, and his own received him not.For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)THE THREAD
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.John’s ‘received’ comes from the same Greek root as Mark’s ‘received,’ with a compound meaning ‘receive’ or ‘take along.’ Mark shows a cup offered to Jesus and left untaken; John uses that same taking-language for a person who arrives and is not received.
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