What Does Matthew 11:2 Mean in the King James?
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
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 prison holds John, but it cannot hold what he hears: the Anointed One’s work becomes a sending.
THE MEANING
Confinement can limit the body while what a person hears still travels through them and outward. Here, hearing of the Anointed One’s works becomes a sending of learners beyond the prison.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that being constrained means having no agency: a person can still receive and send from within a bound place.
THE ROOT
Χριστοῦ
Christou
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
To anoint.
Christ belongs to the same word family as anointing: it names the Anointed One, not a surname. The works John hears are the works of the one marked by anointing.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: To anoint.
χρίω
This is the action at the heart of the title Christ.
chrisma: Anointing.
χρῖσμα
This related word makes visible the shared root between the act of anointing and the Anointed One.
ἀκούσας
akousas
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
To hear or listen.
The word family joins hearing with what is heard: a report is itself called hearing. John’s hearing does not remain passive; it becomes the movement of sending learners onward.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing or a report.
ἀκοή
The shared root links John’s act of hearing with the report that reaches him.
hypakouō: To heed or obey; literally, to hear under.
ὑπακούω
This related word shows how hearing can carry a response within the same word family.
δεσμωτηρίῳ
desmōtēriō
GROWS FROM
δεσμ-
Bond or binding.
The Greek word for prison is built on the stem for bonds. Against that bound setting, the sentence still moves: John hears, then sends.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: A bond or chain.
δεσμός
This is the bond at the root of the word for prison.
desmios: A prisoner or bound person.
δέσμιος
This related word names the person held by the bonds that define the prison.
THE PATTERN
Confinement can hold a person without containing what is heard, spoken, or sent.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;Where in I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.THE THREAD
And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?The following verse gives the sending its content: a question about whether Jesus is the one who is coming. The movement from hearing to sending carries a question beyond the prison.
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