What Does Mark 15:43 Mean in the King James?
Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.
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
Joseph’s waiting for God’s governance is a posture of receiving that becomes an act: he approaches Pilate and asks for Jesus’ body.
THE MEANING
God’s governance is something you can await while authority still has power over a body. Joseph’s expectation does not keep him at a distance: he goes before Pilate and asks for Jesus’ body. The verse holds expectation and embodied action in the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Waiting for God’s governance means staying passive until power becomes harmless.
THE ROOT
προσδεχόμενος
prosdechomenos
GROWS FROM
δεχ (dech-), the stem in δέχομαι (dechomai)
Receive, accept, welcome.
The word is προσδέχομαι (prosdechomai, await or receive expectantly), formed with πρός (pros, toward) and δέχομαι (dechomai, receive or welcome). English “waited for” can hide this posture of reception: Joseph welcomes the expectation of God’s reign even as he acts in the present.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: Receive, accept, welcome.
δέχομαι
This is the base stem in Joseph’s word for waiting, keeping reception inside the expectation.
ekdechomai: Await, expect, look for.
ἐκδέχομαι
This related form also joins expectation to waiting, showing how the same root can carry both meanings.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver, rescue; bring out from constriction into spaciousness.
The English name “Jesus” conceals the content carried by Yeshua: deliverance from constriction into spaciousness. Joseph asks for this one’s body, so the name’s promise stands beside bodily death without replacing its reality.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: Deliver, rescue, bring out.
יָשַׁע
The verb gives the name its movement toward deliverance.
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun makes visible the deliverance held inside the name Yeshua.
THE PATTERN
Waiting for God’s promise is an active openness that gives hope a present direction.
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;THE THREAD
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.Luke uses the same Greek verb προσδέχομαι (prosdechomai, await or receive expectantly) for Simeon waiting for Israel’s consolation. Simeon’s name reaches back to שִׁמְעוֹן (Shim’on, “heard”), bringing hearing alongside the posture of receiving. Mark and Luke bind expectation to what is arriving while keeping the waiting person present to the moment.
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