What Does Matthew 12:11 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
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 verb translated “lift” here is Matthew’s word elsewhere for raising the dead, so this rescue carries the language of resurrection.
THE MEANING
A creature trapped in a pit calls forth a direct response: you take hold of it and raise it out. Even on the Sabbath, this act is treated as self-evident; rest does not make care for a living creature unintelligible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the claim that honoring the Sabbath requires leaving a trapped creature unaided; the expected response is to lift it out.
THE ROOT
ἐγείρω
egeirō
GROWS FROM
ἐγερ
eger
To raise, rouse, or awaken.
English “lift” can sound like a simple change of position, but ἐγείρω also describes awakening and raising the dead. The sheep is brought up from danger through the same word-family Matthew uses for beings raised into life.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: Awaken or rouse from sleep.
ἐγείρω
The word can describe someone being roused into action, giving this rescue the sense of bringing a helpless creature back into movement.
egersis: A raising; resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This related noun names resurrection, showing the life-restoring reach held within the word-family.
THE PATTERN
A creature in danger calls for hands-on rescue, even within sacred rest.
Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?THE THREAD
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.The verb rendered “lift” here is the same verb Matthew uses for the dead being “raised up” in 11:5. The sheep’s rescue and the dead person’s rising are expressed through one Greek word-family: what is helpless is brought up.
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