What Does Matthew 21:18 Mean in the King James?
Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.
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 Greek word for bodily hunger also names the longing for alignment, joining physical need and moral desire in one root.
THE MEANING
The verse lets you see a body in motion with its need still present. Hunger is named plainly in the middle of a return, without explanation or shame.
THE ROOT
ἐπείνασεν
epeinasen
GROWS FROM
πειν-
To hunger, to feel the need for food; the verb is πεινάω (peinaō), meaning “to be hungry.”
“hungered” in this verse is epeinasen. Here the word names bodily hunger; elsewhere the same verb describes longing for alignment. One root holds physical appetite and a desire for what is right, while the surrounding words show which kind of hunger is in view.
ALSO GROWS
peinōntes: People who are hungry or longing.
πεινῶντες
In Matthew 5:6, the same verb describes hunger for alignment, connecting this bodily need with a deeper longing.
peina: Hunger or the felt lack of food.
πεῖνα
This noun form makes the need explicit: hunger is a real lack, not merely a figure of speech.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses hunger for bodily need and for longing toward what brings fullness.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.THE THREAD
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.The word translated “hungered” here shares its Greek root with “do hunger” in this verse. There the appetite reaches beyond food toward alignment, and the shared word lets bodily need and moral longing illuminate one another.
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