What Does Matthew 19:29 Mean in the King James?
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
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 is released for Jesus’s nature opens into a hundredfold belonging and the life of the ages.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the reader when home, kin, or land is released for the sake of Jesus’s nature. The hundredfold names an enlarged belonging, while the inheritance is life of the ages. The cost is real, and the promise places that release within a larger life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is released for Jesus’s sake becomes only loss, with no new belonging or share in the life of the ages.
THE ROOT
ἀφῆκεν
aphēken
GROWS FROM
ἀφίημι
aphiēmi
To send away, leave, or let go; also to release.
“forsaken” in this verse is aphēken. The verb can name both leaving and release, without making the loss unreal. Here its direction is given by “for my name’s sake”: what is let go is tied to Jesus’s nature.
ALSO GROWS
aphentes: Having left; letting go.
ἀφέντες
The same verb describes the disciples leaving their nets, making the release here concrete.
aphesis: Release; forgiveness.
ἄφεσις
This related noun shows how the same word family can name a loosening of what is held.
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνομα-
onoma-
Name; the identifying name by which someone is known.
The reason for release is not merely speaking Jesus’s name: his name carries his known identity and nature. The verse ties the cost to that nature rather than treating sacrifice as a price that purchases reward.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name; to call by name.
ὀνομάζω
This verb makes explicit that a name identifies the one being named; here that identity is the reason for release.
onomastos: Named; renowned.
ὀνομαστός
A name can carry the character for which someone is known, deepening the force of “for my name’s sake.”
ζωὴν αἰώνιον
zōēn aiōnion
GROWS FROM
αἰων-
aiōn-
Age; an era or ordered span of time.
“everlasting life” in this verse is zōēn aiōnion. The adjective rendered “everlasting” is built from the word for “age,” opening the phrase as life of the ages. Joined to inheritance, it presents this life as a received share in the age to come, not a wage for abandonment.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: Age; era.
αἰών
This is the source word that gives the adjective its sense of belonging to an age.
aiōnios: Of or belonging to an age; age-long.
αἰώνιος
This is the adjective used in the phrase, revealing the connection to life of the ages.
THE PATTERN
Release in response to a divine calling opens toward a wider belonging and a share in a larger life.
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.THE THREAD
And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.The Greek verb translated “left” here is the same one translated “forsaken” in Matthew 19:29. It names the same movement from holding on to release, whether the object is a net or a home, kin, and land.
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