What Does Mark 6:17 Mean in the King James?
For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her.
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
When a ruler’s taking is exposed, power can answer by binding the one who names it.
THE MEANING
A wrong that is named can provoke the power implicated in it to seize and confine the speaker. The binding restricts John’s body, while the reason for it remains visible: Herod has married his brother’s wife. The next verse makes clear what John has said about that marriage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that confinement proves the speaker deserves to be silenced. Here, the confinement reveals the ruler’s response to what John names.
THE ROOT
ἔδησεν
edēsen
GROWS FROM
δέω (deō), δεσ- (des-)
to bind or tie
Greek keeps the act of binding, the bond it makes, and the person bound in one word family. The verse’s word for “prison,” φυλακή (phylakē), is separate: it names a guarded place, while “bound” names what Herod does to John.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, tie
δέσμος
The bond is the restraint made by the act of binding; John is not simply kept in a place but made captive.
desmios: prisoner, one who is bound
δέσμιος
The same word family names the person by the binding imposed on him, keeping the act and its human cost together.
THE PATTERN
When a speaker’s words threaten a ruler’s control, the ruler can answer by confining the speaker.
And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:THE THREAD
For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.This verse names the speech behind the arrest: John says Herod’s marriage is unlawful. The binding in verse 17 follows that exposure, making confinement the ruler’s answer to the words.
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