What Does Matthew 13:7 Mean in the King James?

And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

Matthew 13:7 · KJV

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 seed is present, yet what grows beside it can suffocate it.

THE MEANING

The word is present in you while other growth rises in the same ground. As that growth closes around it, the word is choked before it can bear fruit. This is suffocation by coexistence, not absence of seed.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Receiving the word guarantees fruit, whatever else grows alongside it.

THE ROOT

ἔπνιξαν

epnixan

GROWS FROM

πνίγω

To choke or suffocate.

“choked” in this verse is epnixan. The Greek verb ⁨πνίγω⁩ (pnigō), meaning to choke or suffocate, returns in the next verse as ⁨συμπνίγω⁩ (sympnigō). That shared root connects the thorns’ choking of the seed to the crowding pressure that leaves the word unfruitful.

ALSO GROWS

sympnigō: To choke or suffocate by pressing in.

συμπνίγω

Matthew 13:22 uses this compound for how the cares of this age and wealth’s deception choke the word.

apopnigō: To choke or drown.

ἀποπνίγω

This related form keeps the image of life cut off by suffocation, showing the severity held in the root.

THE PATTERN

Thorn growth turns ground meant for life into a field where fruit is crowded out.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Genesis 3:18 · KJVThorns rise from the same ground that brings forth food, making nourishment coexist with obstruction.

But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Hebrews 6:8 · KJVThe ground’s thorn-bearing yield ends in rejection and burning rather than a useful harvest.

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Matthew 13:22 · KJVThe verse names care and wealth’s deception as the growth that chokes the word until it bears no fruit.

THE THREAD

And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

Luke 8:14 · KJV

Luke uses the same Greek root in a compounded form and names cares, riches, and pleasures as what chokes the seed. The root links the thorns in this verse to the competing growth that fills the same life and leaves the word without fruit.

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