What Does Matthew 14:3 Mean in the King James?
For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife.
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 verse traces a ruler’s power from a grasp to binding to a guarded place, making custody the shape his authority takes.
THE MEANING
Here, personal interest backed by authority becomes physical confinement: John is seized, bound, and held in prison. Herod acts for Herodias, while the mention of Philip keeps the relationship at the center of the act of custody.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that authority acts impartially here: the confinement serves Herodias’s interest.
THE ROOT
ἐκράτησεν
ekratēsen
GROWS FROM
κρατ-
krat-
Strength, might, or power; the verb carries the sense of taking hold with force or exercising power over.
“laid hold on” in this verse is ekratēsen. The wording reaches beyond a neutral grasp: John is taken into someone else’s power. The next actions, binding and confinement, show what that power does to him.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: Might, strength, power.
κράτος
This noun makes the force within “laid hold” audible: Herod’s authority is exercised over John’s body.
krataios: Strong, mighty.
κραταιός
This related word shares the strength-bearing stem, sharpening the sense of a forceful seizure.
δέω
deō
GROWS FROM
δε-
de-
To tie or fasten; to bind.
“bound” in this verse is deō. The binding is a literal restraint, and its word-family also names bonds and people held by them. The English sequence carries the same physical movement: a person is seized, tied, then confined.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: A bond or chain.
δεσμός
The bond is the restraint made visible in John’s binding.
desmios: A prisoner, or one who is bound.
δέσμιος
This branch names a person through the condition John now occupies.
φυλακή
phylakē
GROWS FROM
φυλακ-/φυλασσ- (phylak-/phylass-)
Guarding, watching, or keeping; φυλακή can mean a watch or guard, and also a prison.
The prison word belongs to the language of guarding and keeping watch. Confinement here is maintained custody: John is not merely placed somewhere, but held under watch.
ALSO GROWS
phylassō: To guard, watch, or keep.
φυλάσσω
This verb shows the guarding sense within the word-family of φυλακή, the prison where John is kept.
phylax: A guard or watcher.
φύλαξ
The related noun names the keeper who sustains the custody described by the prison word.
THE PATTERN
Power turns seizure and restraint into guarded confinement.
And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.THE THREAD
And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.Both verses use φυλακή (phylakē), meaning prison or a place of guarding. Acts makes the guarded dimension explicit through the soldiers assigned to keep Peter, opening John’s confinement as controlled custody.
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