What Does Matthew 14:15 Mean in the King James?
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.
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
In “send the multitude away,” the Greek verb carries the sense of release, so dismissal is the disciples’ first proposed answer to hunger.
THE MEANING
When need grows visible and the hour feels late, distance can look like a solution: let the hungry leave and buy food on their own. The pressure here is to move the need away from the place where it is seen.
THE ROOT
ἀπόλυσον
apólyson
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
to loose, unbind, release
The Greek verb behind “send away” joins dismissal with release: the crowd would be let go from the place where its hunger is being seen. That same verb-family can also describe a person being “loosed,” a connection English translations can make easy to miss.
ALSO GROWS
lýsis: loosening, release
λύσις
This noun carries the base root’s sense of loosening, revealing the release inside the proposed dismissal.
apólysis: release, dismissal
ἀπόλυσις
This related noun brings the release and dismissal senses together, illuminating the action proposed for the crowd.
THE PATTERN
When another person’s need presses into a group’s space, the first impulse can be to move that person away.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.THE THREAD
Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.“Loosed him” translates a form of the same Greek verb used here for “send away.” There, the servant is loosed while a different verb describes the debt being forgiven; the shared verb lets the proposed dismissal here echo the release of a person elsewhere.
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