What Does Mark 3:27 Mean in the King James?
No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.
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 order is the revelation: the grip must be broken before what it holds can be carried away.
THE MEANING
What seems securely held is not beyond reach: the keeper is bound, and then the house is plundered. The verse keeps the force of that image visible, the release of what is held comes through overcoming the power that holds it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever is strongly guarded can never be reclaimed.
THE ROOT
δέω
deō
GROWS FROM
δέω
deō
To bind or tie.
“bind” in this verse is deō. The binding comes first: the house cannot be plundered while its keeper remains free to hold it. The same word family names bonds and the people bound by them, making the verse’s change in control concrete.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: Bond, fetter
δεσμός
A bond is the restraint made by binding; it echoes the verse’s first move against the householder’s control.
desmōtēs: Prisoner, one who is bound
δεσμώτης
This branch names the condition binding creates: a person held in restraint.
ἰσχυρός
ischyros
GROWS FROM
ἰσχυ-
ischy-
Strength, might.
The “strong man” is defined by his capacity to hold the house and its goods. The same strength-family also supplies the word “stronger” in Luke’s parallel, where the contest that changes the house’s control is made explicit.
ALSO GROWS
ischys: Strength, might
ἰσχύς
This noun exposes the force beneath “strong”: the householder’s grip rests on might.
ischyroteros: Stronger
ἰσχυρότερος
Luke uses this comparative from the same family for the one who overcomes the armed householder.
διαρπάζω
diarpazō
GROWS FROM
ἁρπάζω
harpazō
To seize or carry off by force; διαρπάζω intensifies this as plundering.
The verb translated “spoil” is used for taking the goods and then the house: this is a thorough seizure, not a gentle release. The image does not conceal the force of what happens after the keeper is bound.
ALSO GROWS
harpazō: Snatch, seize, carry off
ἁρπάζω
This verb is the base of διαρπάζω and shows the force carried into the verse’s repeated act of plundering.
harpax: Robber, rapacious one
ἅρπαξ
This related word names one who seizes by force, reinforcing the hard edge of the verse’s image.
THE PATTERN
What is held captive is carried out when the power securing it is overcome.
But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.THE THREAD
But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.Luke’s “stronger” comes from the same Greek strength-family as Mark’s “strong man,” and makes the contest between them explicit. The armor is stripped and the spoils divided, extending Mark’s sequence from binding the keeper to plundering the house.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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