What Does Matthew 19:5 Mean in the King James?
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
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
“Cleave” is an adhesive word: the verse presents marriage as a joining that forms one embodied life.
THE MEANING
This verse names a shift in kinship: a man leaves his parents’ household and joins himself to his wife. The joining is more than closeness; it makes the two one embodied life. The question places the weight of that bond before the reader now.
THE ROOT
προσκολληθήσεται
proskollēthēsetai
GROWS FROM
κολλάω
kolláō
To glue, join, or attach closely.
The verb behind “cleave” carries the sense of adhesive joining, with holding force. Its use for sexual joining in 1 Corinthians 6:16 makes the verse’s “one flesh” concrete: the union is embodied, not merely emotional.
ALSO GROWS
kollṓmenos: A person who joins or attaches himself.
κολλώμενος
In 1 Corinthians 6:16 this form describes one joined to another, followed by the words “one body”; it makes the embodied force of this root visible.
kollâsthai: To attach oneself to someone or something.
κολλᾶσθαι
Acts 5:13 uses this form for joining oneself to others, showing the same root’s sense of close attachment.
THE PATTERN
When two people are joined, scripture describes the bond as a shared embodied reality that reorders prior ties.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.THE THREAD
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.The Greek verb translated “joined” is another form of the verb behind “cleave” in Matthew. Paul uses it to describe a sexual joining as “one body,” then quotes the same one-flesh line, exposing the embodied force of the word.
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