What Does Matthew 18:30 Mean in the King James?
And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
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 debt does not stay an amount: it hardens into custody of the person who owes it.
THE MEANING
The verse shows what happens when an obligation defines a person: the debtor is held in custody until he can satisfy what is owed. The prison makes that narrowing concrete while the debt remains in place. The refusal does not release the debt; it turns the relationship into a keeper and a captive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this exposes is that tightening control over a debtor is the same as resolving the debt.
THE ROOT
ὀφειλόμενον
opheilomenon
GROWS FROM
ὀφειλ-
opheil-
To owe; to be under an obligation.
“debt” in this verse is opheilomenon. The word means what is owed, and it belongs to the same Greek family as the words for “debtor” and “debts” in Matthew 6:12. English separates those forms, while Greek keeps their shared seed visible: the obligation and the person who bears it are linguistically bound together.
ALSO GROWS
opheiletēs: Debtor; one who owes.
ὀφειλέτης
This names the person by the same obligation that the verse calls “the debt.”
opheilēma: Debt; what is owed.
ὀφείλημα
This is the debt-word used in Matthew 6:12, linking the obligation here to the prayer’s language of release.
φυλακή
phylakē
GROWS FROM
φυλακ-
phylak-
Watch, keeping, guarded custody.
The Greek word for prison belongs to a word-family about guarding and keeping. The English noun can sound like a place alone; the root lets you see the person being kept there, held under watch until the obligation is met.
ALSO GROWS
phylassō: To guard, keep watch, or keep safe.
φυλάσσω
Its verb form makes the prison’s action visible: someone is being kept in custody.
phylax: Guard or watchman.
φύλαξ
This names the keeper in the same family as the guarded place, sharpening the verse’s movement from debt to custody.
THE PATTERN
Debt can narrow a person into bondage, while release breaks the claim that the obligation is all they are.
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?THE THREAD
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.The word translated “debts” belongs to the same Greek family as “what is owed” in Matthew 18:30, and “debtors” names the people bound to that same root. The prayer pairs this debt-family with release, making the choice plain: the obligation can be held over a person, or let go.
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