What Does Matthew 17:1 Mean in the King James?
And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
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 Greek verb makes the ascent something Jesus brings the companions into, while the six-day pause echoes Sinai’s mountain threshold.
THE MEANING
After six days, Jesus brings Peter, James, and John upward, apart from others. You stand at the threshold of the disclosure that follows: the ascent begins with being led into a set-apart encounter.
THE ROOT
ἀναφέρει
anapherei
GROWS FROM
φερ
The Greek stem φερ- (pher-) carries the sense of carrying, bearing, or bringing.
“bringeth them up” in this verse is anapherei. The verb is built from ἀνά (up) and φέρω (carry, bring), making Jesus the one who brings the companions upward. The ascent begins as something they are led into, rather than an action the verse attributes to them.
ALSO GROWS
pherō: carry, bear, bring
φέρω
This is the verb’s core stem, showing the carrying sense within “bringeth them up.”
prospherō: bring forward, offer
προσφέρω
This compound shares the φερ- stem and extends bringing into presenting something forward.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
The Hebrew root יָשַׁע (yasha) means to deliver, carrying the sense of movement from constriction into spaciousness.
“Jesus” in this verse is Yeshua. The Greek text names him Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, from ישע. The name carries the nature of deliverance, so the one leading the companions upward bears that meaning within the scene.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: deliver; bring out into spaciousness
יָשַׁע
This verb is the seed of the name and gives deliverance its movement outward.
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun makes explicit the deliverance held in the name Yeshua.
moshia: deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This word names the one who acts to deliver, echoing Jesus as the one who leads the companions.
ὑψηλόν
hypsēlon
GROWS FROM
ὑψ
The Greek stem ὑψ- (hyps-) carries the sense of height or elevation.
The word translated “high” belongs to the same stem as ὕψος (height) and ὑψόω (raise, exalt). The mountain’s physical elevation thus resonates with the broader language of being raised.
ALSO GROWS
hypsos: height, high place
ὕψος
This noun shares the ὑψ- stem and names the height expressed by the mountain.
hypsoō: raise, exalt
ὑψόω
This verb carries the same stem from physical height into the idea of being raised.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly places encounter with the LORD at a mountain where a person is set apart.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.THE THREAD
And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.Exodus names a six-day wait before the call comes from the cloud on Sinai; Matthew places the ascent after the same interval. That shared timing sets this mountain scene inside a Sinai-shaped rhythm of waiting, ascent, and disclosure.
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