What Does Mark 15:31 Mean in the King James?
Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
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 taunt assumes deliverance must look like self-preservation, yet its own words testify that he has delivered others.
THE MEANING
This verse holds two realities together: others are delivered, while the one they mock remains exposed to violence. The taunt treats his suffering as proof of failure, even as it names the deliverance already reaching others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a deliverer’s inability to escape suffering makes the deliverance offered to others unreal.
THE ROOT
ἔσωσεν
esōsen
GROWS FROM
σώζω
sōzō
To deliver, rescue, or bring safely through danger.
“saved” in this verse is esōsen. The verb’s family holds deliverance as being brought through danger toward safety. Here the mockers speak as if his inability to escape cancels his power to deliver, while their first words already name what he has done for others.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēr: Deliverer; savior.
σωτήρ
The related noun names the one who delivers, keeping the focus on a person who brings others through danger.
sōtēria: Deliverance; rescue.
σωτηρία
This noun names the deliverance the mockers acknowledge in the first half of their taunt.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance for others can pass through a sufferer’s exposure rather than that person’s escape.
He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.THE THREAD
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.Both verses use the Greek verb σώζω (sōzō), to deliver. Mark 8:35 turns the taunt’s assumption inside out: deliverance is not measured only by escaping harm, and a life given can reach others.
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