What Does Mark 6:4 Mean in the King James?

But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
Mark 6:4 · KJV
The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

The people most familiar with you can mistake familiarity for a measure of your worth.

Your nearness to others does not guarantee that they see the value or truth you carry. This verse names the pain of honor being withheld in the places where you are most familiar: your country, your kin, your own house.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that if those closest to you fail to recognize your worth, that failure proves you have none.

ἄτιμος

átimos

GROWS FROM

τιμ-

tim-

Value, price, esteem; the stem at the center of the Greek word for honor.

The word translated “without honour” means dishonored or treated as without value. The verse says the prophet’s value is not absent; honor is what the familiar circle withholds.

ALSO GROWS

timē: Value, price, honor

τιμή

This is the word for the honor withheld in Mark’s verse: the worth is there, even when others do not assign it.

timios: Precious, valuable, honored

τίμιος

This branch names what can remain true of someone even when their own circle treats them as ordinary.

πατρίδι

patridi

GROWS FROM

πατρ-

patr-

Father and paternal belonging; by extension, the homeland associated with one’s fathers.

The word for country carries the language of paternal belonging. The verse then narrows the circle from homeland to kin to house, showing how recognition can fail at every distance, even the closest.

ALSO GROWS

patēr: Father

πατήρ

The homeland’s name is tied to paternal belonging, which sharpens the verse’s movement toward kin and household.

patria: Family, lineage, clan

πατριά

This word from the same paternal stem makes visible the family bond already named in the verse’s widening-to-narrowing sequence.

Rejection by those nearest or best placed to recognize someone does not settle that person’s worth or place.

And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Genesis 37:4 · KJVThe closest circle turns familiarity and rivalry into hostility rather than recognition.
The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
Psalm 118:22 · KJVThe builders’ rejection does not determine the stone’s eventual place.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
John 1:11 · KJVThe refusal of those who should recognize him does not erase who he is.
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
Romans 13:7 · KJV

“Honour” here uses the same Greek word family as “without honour” in Mark. Romans names honor as something due; Mark shows how familiarity can obscure the value that is still there.

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Mark 6:4 KJV Meaning