What Does Matthew 18:21 Mean in the King James?
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
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 verse exposes the arithmetic inside forgiveness: the injury may repeat, but Peter wants to know when release runs out.
THE MEANING
You can recognize the moment an injury becomes a tally: how many times can this person wrong you before release ends? Peter names the wrong as sin against him and asks whether even forgiveness has a countable edge.
THE ROOT
ἀφήσω
aphēsō
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + ἵημι (apo + hiēmi)
To send away; let go, release.
Peter’s word for “forgive” is ἀφήσω (aphēsō, “I will release”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) and ἵημι (hiēmi, “send” or “let go”). The verb makes forgiveness an act of releasing; Matthew uses this same word with debts, so the image is not that the wrong never happened, but that its claim can be let go.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, remission.
ἄφεσις
This noun names release from the same word family, keeping the act of letting go visible where English may say “remission.”
aphetós: Released, let go.
ἀφετός
This adjective describes the state that follows release, extending the verb’s image from the act to what has been let go.
ἁμαρτήσει
hamartēsei
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρταν-
hamartan-
To miss, err, or fail to attain.
Before Peter asks about release, he calls the act ἁμαρτήσει (hamartēsei, “will sin” or “will miss”). Its word family includes ἁμαρτία (hamartía, “missing,” “error,” or “sin”): the wrong remains named as a real wrong even while its claim is considered for release.
ALSO GROWS
hamartía: Missing, error, sin.
ἁμαρτία
The related noun makes the shared idea of missing or erring audible beneath Peter’s word for sin.
hamártēma: Error, wrong, sin.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun keeps attention on the wrong itself, not only on the feeling it leaves behind.
THE PATTERN
Release can follow a wrong that remains plainly named as a trespass.
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.THE THREAD
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.The Greek verb translated “forgive” here is the same verb Peter uses in Matthew 18:21. In the prayer it releases debts; in Peter’s question it releases the claim against someone who has wronged him, linking forgiveness to letting go of what is owed.
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