What Does Matthew 15:38 Mean in the King James?
And they that did eat were four 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 four thousand are not the whole crowd: “beside” leaves women and children outside the number but inside the scene.
THE MEANING
Four thousand names the men, while women and children remain present beyond that count. The verse distinguishes the number recorded from the people gathered, so the figure is exact without being the full total.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A stated number does not always name everyone present; this verse undoes the assumption that four thousand is the whole crowd.
THE ROOT
χωρίς
chōris
GROWS FROM
χωρ
chōr
Apartness; being separate from or without.
“beside” in this verse is chōris. The Greek word carries the sense “apart from,” marking the four thousand as a count of the men alone. It sets a boundary around the number, not around who is present at the meal.
ALSO GROWS
chōrizō: Separate, put apart.
χωρίζω
This verb makes the χωρ- family’s sense of separation explicit; here, the count is distinguished from the women and children.
chōrismos: Separation.
χωρισμός
The related noun names the state of being apart, echoing the boundary this verse draws around whom the tally includes.
THE PATTERN
A named tally can be accurate while counting only a specified part of the people present.
And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.THE THREAD
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.The same Greek word, χωρίς (chōris, “apart from” or “without”), appears in both verses. In Matthew it limits whom the number counts; in John it names dependence, showing how the word marks a boundary whose meaning comes from the relation being described.
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