What Does Mark 3:25 Mean in the King James?
And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
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 house falls when shared life is cut into competing portions from within.
THE MEANING
A household holds together while its members inhabit a shared life. When its own parts turn against one another, the fracture rises from within, and the whole loses the coherence to stand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a household can remain whole while its members are set against one another.
THE ROOT
μερισθῇ
meristhē
GROWS FROM
μερίζω
merizō
To divide into parts or apportion.
The verb names an internal splitting: the house’s own parts are divided against one another. Its word family carries the senses of part, share, and division, revealing how a shared life can harden into competing portions until the whole cannot stand.
ALSO GROWS
meros: A part, portion, or share.
μέρος
A divided house becomes competing parts of what was one household.
merismos: Division or distribution into parts.
μερισμός
This branch keeps both sides visible: something is apportioned, and the whole is split.
diamerizō: To divide or distribute.
διαμερίζω
This related form appears in Luke 12:13 for dividing an inheritance, where shared household belonging becomes separate claims.
THE PATTERN
A whole remains joined through shared belonging, while division turns its parts against one another.
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.THE THREAD
And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.The same verb family appears when someone asks Jesus to have a brother divide an inheritance. There, shared household belonging is split into portions; here, the house itself is divided, and the verse names the consequence: it cannot stand.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us