What Does Mark 7:12 Mean in the King James?
And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
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 Greek word translated “suffer” belongs to a release-word family, so the verse shows a sacred rule being used to withhold a son’s care from his parents.
THE MEANING
This verse names what happens when a sacred claim closes off the care a parent needs: the child is no longer permitted to do anything for father or mother. The religious boundary remains in force while ordinary care is shut out.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that declaring resources sacred makes withholding them from one’s parents harmless.
THE ROOT
ἀφίετε
aphiete
GROWS FROM
ἵημι (hiēmi), in the compound ἀφίημι (aphiēmi)
Send or let go; with ἀπό (apo, away), send away or release. The verb can also mean leave, forgive, or permit.
English “suffer” here means permit, while this Greek word family also carries the sense of releasing or leaving. Permission is the hinge: the son is prevented from acting for his father or mother.
ALSO GROWS
aphesis: release, remission, or forgiveness
ἄφεσις
This noun appears as “deliverance” in Luke 4:18, showing the family’s release sense alongside Mark’s sense of permission.
aphienai: to release, leave, or permit
ἀφιέναι
This infinitive form carries the same range of letting go and allowing, illuminating how Mark’s “suffer” means permitting the son to act.
THE PATTERN
A claim to reverence does not cancel the concrete duty of caring for parents.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.THE THREAD
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,“Deliverance” translates ἄφεσις (aphesis), meaning release, from the same Greek word family as ἀφίετε (aphiete), “permit,” in Mark. Luke speaks of release given; Mark shows permission withheld from a son trying to care for his parents.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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