What Does Mark 7:11 Mean in the King James?
But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
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
Corban comes from the Hebrew root for drawing near, yet here a gift declared near to God becomes the means of distance from a parent.
THE MEANING
A sacred designation can stand between a person and the material help their parent could receive. What is named as a gift becomes an exemption from giving that help, so devotion and withholding occupy the same act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that labeling a resource a gift to God makes withholding it from a parent neutral.
THE ROOT
δῶρον
dōron
GROWS FROM
δωρ
gift; something given
The Greek word names a concrete gift or offering. Here that label is used to make what could benefit a parent unavailable to them.
ALSO GROWS
dōreá: gift, bounty
δωρεά
This related word keeps the focus on something granted, sharpening the question of who receives the benefit.
dōréomai: give, grant
δωρέομαι
This verb from the same word family makes the act of giving explicit; the verse turns on whom the declared gift can actually benefit.
קָרְבָּן
qorbān
GROWS FROM
קרב
approach; draw near
“Corban” in this verse is qorbān. Qorbān is an offering, something brought near. The verse’s tension is that a declaration of nearness to God can be used to withhold help from the parents named in the same breath.
ALSO GROWS
qārab: draw near, approach
קָרַב
This verb reveals the movement carried by the offering’s name: bringing something near.
qārōb: near, close
קָרוֹב
This related word brings the root’s sense of nearness into view beside the distance created between parent and child.
THE PATTERN
When religious practice and concrete care collide, the text exposes devotion by what the practice leaves undone.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.Matthew uses the same Greek word δῶρον (dōron, gift) in this matching saying, then names the result: the command to honor parents is nullified. The shared word shows how the gift label becomes a way to block what could benefit them.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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