What Does Matthew 11:30 Mean in the King James?
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
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 yoke is a joining, so the verse locates lightness in whom you are joined to, not in having nothing to carry.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where you are: life still carries a load, but Jesus names the yoke joined to him as easy and the burden light. Its claim is not weightlessness, but a way of carrying whose character is shaped by the one to whom you are joined.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that closeness to Jesus necessarily adds strain, or that a demanding life is made serious by being heavy.
THE ROOT
ζυγός
zygos
GROWS FROM
ζευγ-/ζυγ- (zeug-/zyg-)
To join or yoke together.
A yoke is not only a weight placed on the neck; its word family carries the act of joining. Jesus’ phrase points to a life yoked with him, with lightness arising within that bond rather than from escape from every weight.
ALSO GROWS
zeugnymi: To join, yoke together.
ζεύγνυμι
The verb makes the yoke’s joining sense explicit: the image is of shared movement, not an anonymous force pressing down.
syzygos: Yokefellow; one joined with another.
σύζυγος
The same word family can name a companion as a yokefellow, so the yoke evokes relationship as well as weight.
φορτίον
phortion
GROWS FROM
φορτ-
phort-
A load or freight being carried.
“burden” in this verse is phortion. The Greek word names a carried load, and its family can describe freight being placed on someone. Jesus calls the load belonging to his yoke light, making the character and source of what is carried part of the verse’s claim.
ALSO GROWS
phortos: Freight, cargo, a load.
φόρτος
This related noun keeps the image concrete: the burden is something carried, not an abstract measure of spiritual seriousness.
phortizō: To load or burden.
φορτίζω
This verb can describe placing burdens on people; beside Jesus’ light load, it highlights that not every burden has the same character.
THE PATTERN
A load grows bearable when its carrying is shared through relationship and care.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.THE THREAD
For every man shall bear his own burden.The noun translated “burden” is the same Greek word φορτίον (phortion, a load being carried) used in Matthew 11:30. Just before this, Galatians 6:2 speaks of weights borne together; the distinction opens a picture of personal responsibility held within a life of shared care.
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