What Does Matthew 14:21 Mean in the King James?
And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.
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 five thousand are only the men in the count; women and children are outside the number, not outside the meal.
THE MEANING
The verse presents its figure as a count of men, with women and children named beyond it. The count is not the size of the whole gathering: those left unnumbered also belong to the meal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that five thousand is the total crowd: the verse itself places women and children beyond that count.
THE ROOT
χωρίς
chōris
GROWS FROM
χωρ-
chōr-
Place or space; χωρὶς means apart from or without.
“beside” in this verse is chōris. The Greek marks women and children as apart from the tally, not absent from the gathering. The boundary belongs to the count: the verse names them among those who ate, beyond the number it gives.
ALSO GROWS
chōra: region, land, or place
χώρα
This related word for a place or region echoes the spatial sense behind being set apart from the count.
chōrion: place or plot of land
χωρίον
It shares the same place-or-space stem, making the distinction here a boundary in the tally rather than a boundary around the meal.
THE PATTERN
A provision’s number marks what is counted, while its reach appears in who eats and what remains.
And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.THE THREAD
And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.Matthew repeats χωρὶς γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων (chōris gynaikōn kai paidiōn, apart from women and children). The shared phrase makes the counting boundary visible: the number is a count of men, while the meal reaches more people than the figure names.
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