What Does Mark 4:25 Mean in the King James?
For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.
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 same Greek word for “have” appears three times: what grows or disappears is what you hold, not merely what passes before you.
THE MEANING
Here, hearing becomes a form of holding: what you receive and retain opens into more, while what never takes hold recedes until even its appearance of possession is gone. Understanding is not fixed; it deepens or thins according to what you hold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that exposure equals possession: hearing something does not mean you have held it.
THE ROOT
ἔχει
echei
GROWS FROM
ἔχω
echō
to have, hold, keep
“hath” in this verse is echei. The same form of ἔχω (echō, “have” or “hold”) appears three times, binding both sides of the saying to the same act of holding. In the surrounding call to hear carefully, having is more than owning something: it is retaining what reaches you.
ALSO GROWS
katechō: to hold fast, retain
κατέχω
This branch makes the root’s sense of having as ongoing retention especially clear.
antechomai: to hold to, be devoted to
ἀντέχομαι
Here, holding becomes sustained attachment, showing how “having” can describe what a person keeps close.
ἀρθήσεται
arthēsetai
GROWS FROM
αἴρω
airō
to lift, carry, take away
The word translated “taken” comes from αἴρω (airō), whose basic image is lifting or carrying. The verse pictures even what seems held as something that can be lifted away.
ALSO GROWS
exairō: to remove, take away
ἐξαίρω
This compound sharpens the removal already present in the verse’s image of what is taken from someone.
epairō: to lift up, raise
ἐπαίρω
The same root can describe lifting something up, giving “taken away” the concrete sense of something being lifted off.
THE PATTERN
What is received and held can deepen, while what is left unheld diminishes.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.THE THREAD
And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.Mark 4:24 names careful hearing as the context and repeats the same Greek verb for “given” used here. That makes “having” legible as what you retain from hearing: what takes hold receives more.
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