What Does Matthew 18:11 Mean in the King James?
For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
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
What English calls “saving the lost” is perishing met by deliverance: the Son of Man comes precisely where loss is carrying someone away.
THE MEANING
The Son of Man comes toward what is lost to deliver it from perishing and restore it. For you, being lost is not beyond the reach of this movement; it is where that movement meets you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being lost means you have been abandoned or have crossed beyond the possibility of return.
THE ROOT
σῴσαι
sōsai
GROWS FROM
σωζ-
To deliver, rescue, or preserve.
The verb translated “save” carries the sense of deliverance and preservation. Its word family names both the one who delivers and the deliverance itself, giving the verse a concrete movement: what is lost is brought out of danger.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēr: Deliverer, savior
σωτήρ
The same word family names the one who brings deliverance, matching the Son of Man’s movement toward the lost.
sōtēria: Deliverance, rescue
σωτηρία
This branch names the rescue itself, showing that “save” here carries the sense of being brought out.
ἀπολωλός
apolōlos
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
To lose, perish, or destroy.
The Greek word translated “lost” can also describe perishing or ruin, so it holds more than being misplaced. Set beside sōzō, the verse joins perishing with deliverance: the loss is real, and it is precisely what the Son of Man comes to meet.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Loss, ruin, destruction
ἀπώλεια
This related word shows how strongly the family can describe the condition or outcome of ruin.
apollymenos: One who is perishing
ἀπολλύμενος
This form describes a person in the process of perishing, sharpening the verse’s picture of what deliverance reaches.
THE PATTERN
Divine deliverance moves toward what is lost and brings it back from ruin.
I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.THE THREAD
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.“Lost” in both verses comes from the Greek word family ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), which can also mean to perish. The son’s being lost is paired with death, and his return with life, opening the weight of the deliverance named here.
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