What Does Matthew 18:14 Mean in the King James?
Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
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 Father’s will turns on a single absence: not one of the little ones is to be lost.
THE MEANING
When you stand among the little ones, small, dependent, or easily overlooked, you are not outside your Father’s care. Your being lost is not the desire named here; your absence matters.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being vulnerable or overlooked makes your loss acceptable or unimportant to God.
THE ROOT
ἀπόληται
apolētai
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), from ἀπό (apo) + ὄλλυμι (ollymi)
To lose, destroy, or perish; in this compound, to be lost or brought to ruin.
The Greek verb translated “perish” also describes losing a sheep and losing nothing. English can make “perish” sound only like death, while the same word also carries the sense of being lost; the Father’s concern reaches the little one at risk of disappearing from the flock.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Loss, ruin, or destruction.
ἀπώλεια
This noun names the loss or ruin implied by “perish”, the little one’s loss is precisely what the Father does not desire.
apolōlos: Lost; one who has gone astray.
ἀπολωλός
Luke 15:6 uses this form for the sheep that was lost, showing that this word family includes being lost as well as perishing.
THE PATTERN
The one at risk of being lost remains within divine care and is sought, kept, or restored.
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?And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.THE THREAD
And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.John uses the same verb family as Matthew’s “perish” for “lose nothing.” The parallel ties the Father’s will to keeping and raising the one at risk of being lost.
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