What Does Mark 7:17 Mean in the King James?

And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

Mark 7:17 · 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.

THE KEY

A parable places an image beside its meaning, and the disciples’ question reaches for what the image lets them see.

THE MEANING

When the crowd falls away, the teaching remains open to question. The verse makes room for being close to a teaching without already understanding what it reveals.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that if a teaching is clear, you should understand it without asking.

THE ROOT

παραβολή

parabolē

GROWS FROM

βάλλω

ballō

The root ⁨βάλλω⁩ (ballō, to throw or place), joined with ⁨παρά⁩ (para, beside), gives the image of placing one thing beside another.

The word pictures meaning carried by comparison: one thing is set beside another so the second can be seen through the first. Hearing the parable is not yet the same as seeing what its image places alongside the truth.

ALSO GROWS

paraballō: to put or set beside; to compare

παραβάλλω

This verb names the action compressed into “parable”: setting an image beside the meaning it opens.

bolē: a throw, casting, or placing

βολή

This branch keeps the root’s image of something placed; the parable’s comparison gives the disciples something to examine.

THE PATTERN

A puzzling word opens further when it is brought into direct asking.

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

Proverbs 2:3 · KJVUnderstanding is shown as something actively sought and voiced.

And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.

Mark 4:10 · KJVThe disciples bring their question about a parable into direct conversation.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

James 1:5 · KJVWisdom is met through asking, and the question is received without reproach.

THE THREAD

And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.

Mark 4:10 · KJV

The same word “parable” appears in both verses, and in each the disciples ask about it when the crowd has receded. Mark 4:10 makes the movement in this verse clearer: the image invites a question about what it places beside itself.

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