What Does Mark 15:4 Mean in the King James?
And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee.
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 verb beneath “witness against” means “accuse,” so the claims piling up around Jesus remain charges, not a verdict.
THE MEANING
The reader hears a demand for an answer as accusations multiply around Jesus. The phrase “witness against” carries the sense of accusation, naming a growing set of charges rather than a verdict already established. His silence remains beside those claims without being presented as an admission.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That the sheer number of charges already settles the truth of them.
THE ROOT
κατηγοροῦσιν
katēgorousin
GROWS FROM
κατηγορ-
katēgor-
To accuse or bring a charge.
“witness against” in this verse is katēgorousin. The verb here names an act of accusation: what is multiplying around Jesus is a set of charges. Its word family includes both the charge itself and the person making it, keeping accusation distinct from a verdict.
ALSO GROWS
katēgoria: Accusation, charge
κατηγορία
It names the kind of thing Pilate says is accumulating against Jesus.
katēgoros: Accuser
κατήγορος
It names the one bringing a charge, distinguishing the accuser from the truth of the claim.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places an accused person’s silence beside oppression or charge without treating silence itself as an admission.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:THE THREAD
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.The verb κατηγορέω (katēgoreō, “to accuse”) is the same charge-word behind “witness against” in Mark. Its use here makes Pilate’s “how many things” legible as a mounting set of accusations, not a verdict already spoken.
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