What Does Mark 9:21 Mean in the King James?
And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
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 father says the affliction has been with his son since childhood, yet names it as something that came upon him.
THE MEANING
The father places the beginning of his son’s affliction as far back as childhood. The question makes room for its duration inside the present crisis: the suffering is long-carried, and the father can name how long. Yet the wording still describes something that came upon the boy, not the boy himself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a condition carried since childhood is simply who the child is; the father describes it as something that came upon him.
THE ROOT
ἐκ παιδιόθεν
ek paidiothen
GROWS FROM
παιδ-
paid-
Child; a boy or girl.
“Of a child” in this verse is ek paidiothen. The Greek phrase means “from childhood,” placing the suffering’s beginning as far back as a life-stage rather than naming a specific date. The same root appears in words for a child’s upbringing and education, so childhood here marks a span of formation.
ALSO GROWS
paidagōgos: A child’s guardian or tutor.
παιδαγωγός
This branch connects the child-root with guidance through the years of childhood named in the father’s answer.
paideia: Upbringing, instruction, or training.
παιδεία
This branch shows the same root extending from the child to the formative years that shape a childhood.
γέγονεν
gégonen
GROWS FROM
γιν-/γεν- (gin-/gen-)
To become, come into being, or happen.
“came unto him” in this verse is gégonen. The verb is a perfect form: the father is asked when this condition “has happened” to the boy, and answers that it reaches back to childhood. The wording gives the affliction a history and an onset; it describes what has come upon him, not who he is.
ALSO GROWS
génesis: Origin, birth, or coming into being.
γένεσις
This branch carries the root’s sense of beginning, which fits the question about when the condition first came upon the boy.
génos: Family, kind, or offspring.
γένος
This branch shows the root’s connection to what comes into being or is born.
THE PATTERN
The duration of suffering is made visible by naming how long it has endured.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.THE THREAD
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.The Greek noun παιδίον (paidion), “child,” appears in both verses, keeping the boy in view as the father answers about the affliction’s long duration. In the next line, that same father speaks through tears, and his trust includes a plea for help with doubt.
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