What Does Matthew 14:18 Mean in the King James?

He said, Bring them hither to me.

Matthew 14:18 · 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

What seems insufficient is carried to Jesus as it is, before anyone knows what it can become.

THE MEANING

The sentence meets apparent lack with a specific movement: what is present comes to Jesus. The verb means both bring and bear, so the thing in hand enters the encounter before it is measured by what it can become. This is the hinge between “we have but” and what follows.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that what you have is too little to bring into the encounter.

THE ROOT

φέρετε

pherete

GROWS FROM

⁨φερ-⁩/⁨φορ-⁩ (pher-/phor-), the Greek carry/bear stem

carry, bear, bring

English “bring” can sound like simple relocation, but ⁨φέρω⁩ also means to bear or carry: the thing is borne into relation. Related forms name both what is presented toward someone and what is carried as a load, so the verb holds what is present without promising it is already abundant.

ALSO GROWS

prospherō: offer; bring toward

προσφέρω

The ⁨προσ-⁩ (“toward”) prefix makes explicit a directed carrying: something is brought to a recipient.

phortion: load; burden

φορτίον

This related carry-family noun names what is borne, showing that “bring” includes the substance carried, not only its arrival.

THE PATTERN

Provision begins with what is actually present being brought into the encounter and shared.

And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.

2 Kings 4:42 · KJVThe bread arrives as what someone brings, then becomes food shared with the people.

There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

John 6:9 · KJVThe small amount already present is named before the question of its sufficiency is answered.

For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

2 Corinthians 8:12 · KJVThe measure is what a person has, locating the offering in present capacity rather than imagined abundance.

THE THREAD

Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Hebrews 13:13 · KJV

The same Greek verb appears as “bearing” his reproach. The food in Matthew and the reproach in Hebrews are unlike things, yet both are carried toward him; that shared verb opens “bring” as bearing something into relation.

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