What Does Matthew 16:26 Mean in the King James?
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
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 “soul” weighed against the whole world is the living self, so no amount of worldly gain can repay its loss.
THE MEANING
Your living soul is not one possession among the world’s gains; it is the life by which gain has meaning. The verse holds up a stark imbalance: the whole world may be acquired, yet nothing can be given in exchange to recover the self that is lost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that success can compensate for losing yourself: even the whole world is not an adequate exchange for your living soul.
THE ROOT
ψυχή
psychē
GROWS FROM
ψυχ-
psych-
living self; life
The Greek word ψυχή (psychē, living soul or life) holds together what English can split into “soul” and “life.” Here the loss is not merely the loss of an inward part; it is the loss of the living self itself.
ALSO GROWS
empsychos: living; animate
ἔμψυχος
This related form makes the link between ψυχή (psychē, living soul) and living existence visible.
apsychos: lifeless; inanimate
ἄψυχος
Its contrast helps show that ψυχή (psychē, living soul) names the living self whose loss the verse treats as beyond price.
κερδαίνω
kerdainō
GROWS FROM
κερδ-
kerd-
gain; profit
The verse uses the language of profit, then asks what happens when the gain costs the very self that would possess it. Its calculation overturns the idea that accumulating more always means coming out ahead.
ALSO GROWS
kerdos: gain; profit
κέρδος
This noun shares the verse’s language of profit, making its final question a reckoning of what counts as real gain.
kerdainō: to gain; to profit
κερδαίνω
The verb names the apparent success that the verse measures against the loss of the living self.
ἀντάλλαγμα
antallagma
GROWS FROM
ἀλλαγ-
allag-
change; exchange
The word for “exchange” asks what can be given as a countervalue for the living self. Its root carries the sense of changing one thing for another, while the verse leaves the exchange unanswered: no worldly gain can restore what is lost.
ALSO GROWS
allassō: to change; to exchange
ἀλλάσσω
This verb makes the exchange sense of ἀντάλλαγμα (antallagma, exchange) clear: one thing is traded for another.
allagē: change; exchange
ἀλλαγή
This related noun echoes the verse’s question of whether any change of possession can make the lost self whole again.
THE PATTERN
No worldly gain can serve as an exchange price for the living self once it is lost.
None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?THE THREAD
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.The word translated “life” here is ψυχή (psychē, living soul or life), the same word rendered “soul” in Matthew 16:26. The two verses trace the same living self through loss and finding, revealing why worldly gain cannot stand in for it.
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