What Does Mark 16:19 Mean in the King James?
So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
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 one received upward does not vanish into distance; he is seated at God’s right hand, where ascent becomes settled authority.
THE MEANING
The Lord is received into heaven and sits beside God. The image of the right hand holds nearness and authority together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that ascension means abandonment: the verse ends with Jesus seated beside God, not absent from authority.
THE ROOT
ἀνελήμφθη
anelēmphthē
GROWS FROM
λαμβαν-
lamban-
The Greek stem means to take or receive; ἀνά (ana) adds the sense of upward movement, and the passive form presents him as received.
“received up” in this verse is anelēmphthē. The wording foregrounds reception into heaven, not simply upward motion. The ascent is held together with being received.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: Take or receive.
λαμβάνω
This is the verb stem within “received up,” keeping reception at the center of the verse.
analēmpsis: A taking up or being received up.
ἀνάλημψις
This related noun names the upward reception as an event, preserving both parts of the verse’s image.
ἐκάθισεν
ekathisen
GROWS FROM
καθίζω
kathizō
To sit down or to seat; here, to take a settled place.
“sat” in this verse is ekathisen. The verb makes the ascent end in a position, not a disappearance. In the phrase “at the right hand,” that settled position is beside God.
ALSO GROWS
synkathizō: Sit together.
συγκαθίζω
This compound keeps the relational sense of sitting; Mark places Jesus beside God.
parakathizō: Sit beside.
παρακαθίζω
This compound makes explicit the beside-ness conveyed here by sitting at God’s right hand.
THE PATTERN
The ascent resolves in a seat at God’s right hand, joining nearness to God with authority.
A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.THE THREAD
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;Mark and Hebrews use the same Greek verb, καθίζω (kathizō), for Jesus sitting at God’s right hand. The shared verb makes the seat the completion of the ascent: he arrives and takes a settled place beside God.
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