What Does Matthew 17:20 Mean in the King James?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
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 mountain’s scale is not the measure of trust: even seed-sized trust addresses what looks immovable.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where trust feels small beside what stands in front of you. The Greek words behind “unbelief” and “faith” belong to one word family, holding absence of trust and trust in the same frame. The mustard seed and the mountain make a striking contrast: what looks immovable does not set the limit of what trust can address.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that trust must already feel vast before it can act.
THE ROOT
ἀπιστία
apistia
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
To persuade or be persuaded; to trust.
“unbelief / faith” in this verse is apistia. The KJV’s “unbelief” and “faith” are built from the same Greek word family: trust and its absence share a root. That connection makes the verse’s contrast less about two unrelated states and more about whether trust is present and taking hold.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, be persuaded, trust.
πείθω
This verb shows the root’s movement toward trust: being persuaded is more than possessing information; it is leaning into what one trusts.
pistos: Firm, steady; trustworthy.
πιστός
This branch shows the quality associated with trust: steadiness, not sheer size.
apistos: Untrusting, unbelieving.
ἄπιστος
With the privative prefix, this branch names the absence of trust in the same family as faith, echoing the verse’s paired terms.
THE PATTERN
What appears immovable is met by trust that speaks to it, and its apparent scale does not set the limit.
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.THE THREAD
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.Mark places πιστεύω (pisteuō, trust or believe) beside ἀπιστία (apistia, lack of trust) in one sentence. Trust and its acknowledged absence can be present together, revealing “unbelief” as a tension within the same word family rather than a fixed identity.
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