What Does Mark 5:11 Mean in the King James?
Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
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 quiet act of feeding becomes the hinge between an unseen presence and its visible cost.
THE MEANING
The herd grazes calmly while an unseen presence presses toward a place to enter. The scene holds ordinary provision beside a destructive force about to make itself visible in what it touches.
THE ROOT
βοσκομένη
boskomenē
GROWS FROM
βοσκ-
bosk-
To feed, pasture, or let graze.
“feeding” in this verse is boskomenē. The Greek verb βόσκω (boskō, “feed or pasture”) can describe both animals grazing and the tending of a flock. Its use here shares a word with Jesus’ later command to feed his sheep, placing a scene of ordinary grazing beside the question of what truly sustains or consumes a life.
ALSO GROWS
boskein: To feed or pasture.
βόσκειν
In Luke 15:15 this form describes the son being sent into the fields to feed swine, linking the act of feeding with the condition of the one assigned to it.
boske: Feed; tend by providing nourishment.
βόσκε
Jesus uses this form in John 21:17 when he tells Peter to feed his sheep, giving the same root a picture of care and sustenance.
THE PATTERN
A feeding place makes visible who is being sustained and the condition of that life.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.THE THREAD
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.The Greek verb βόσκω (boskō, “feed or pasture”) describes the swine grazing here and appears in Jesus’ command, βόσκε (boske, “feed or pasture”), to Peter. The shared word connects animal grazing with the work of sustaining a flock, while the surrounding scenes reveal the difference between what gives life and what destroys.
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