What Does Mark 9:14 Mean in the King James?
And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.
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 “questioning” can name a shared search that has become a dispute.
THE MEANING
You can see how a crowd gathered around a question may find itself caught in contention. Here, the disciples stand inside a public dispute, and the word for “questioning” carries the sharper sense of debating together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that questioning is always neutral: this word can mean disputing, so a question can already carry contention.
THE ROOT
συζητοῦντας
syzētountas
GROWS FROM
ζητε-
zēte-
Seek, look for, or inquire.
The participle comes from συζητέω (syzēteō, “seek or discuss together”), formed from σύν (syn, “with, together”) and ζητέω (zēteō, “seek”). “Questioning” can sound like neutral inquiry in English, while this Greek word can describe a debate or dispute; the seeking is shared, but the exchange is contentious.
ALSO GROWS
zēteō: Seek, look for.
ζητέω
The base verb reveals the searching inside the exchange.
epizēteō: Seek after, desire.
ἐπιζητέω
The prefix intensifies the same searching motion.
syzētēsis: Discussion, debate, dispute.
συζήτησις
This related noun makes explicit how seeking together can become contention.
THE PATTERN
Public questioning around a pressing matter can turn into a contest among the people gathered around it.
Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.THE THREAD
And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them?The same Greek verb appears again as Jesus asks the scribes what they are disputing with the disciples about. That question reveals the force of the exchange: the scene is not simply one of people asking for information, but of people caught in an argument.
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