What Does Matthew 21:22 Mean in the King James?

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Matthew 21:22 · KJV

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 joins trust to the asking itself, and makes receiving its outcome.

THE MEANING

You are addressed as someone who asks in prayer while leaning your full weight on trust. The verse says that what you ask in prayer while trusting, you receive.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that prayer is only a statement of what is missing: the verse carries the asking into trust and ends in reception.

THE ROOT

πιστεύοντες

pisteuontes

GROWS FROM

πιστ-

pist-

Trust, rely on; lean your full weight on.

English can make “believing” sound like agreeing with a claim. The pist- word family carries trust and reliance, so the verse places trust within the act of asking.

ALSO GROWS

pistis: trust, reliance

πίστις

This related noun names the trust that the participle in this verse expresses.

pistos: firm, steady, reliable

πιστός

This branch shows the steady quality carried by the same word family.

λήμψεσθε

lēmpsesthe

GROWS FROM

λαμβάνω

lambanō

Take, receive.

The word translated “receive” belongs to a verb whose range includes both taking and receiving. The verse ends with what is asked coming into the hands of the one who trusts.

ALSO GROWS

lambanō: take, receive

λαμβάνω

This is the verb from which the verse’s future form “ye shall receive” comes.

epilambanomai: take hold of, grasp

ἐπιλαμβάνομαι

This related compound makes the word family’s sense of taking hold visible alongside receiving.

THE PATTERN

Trusting request moves toward reception.

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

Psalm 37:5 · KJVThe verse joins trust with entrusting a way to the LORD, then names its fulfillment.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

John 16:24 · KJVLike Matthew, it places asking before receiving and connects the request with the nature of the one addressed.

And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

1 John 5:15 · KJVIt describes the request as heard and received, carrying the same movement from asking into having.

THE THREAD

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

John 20:31 · KJV

The word rendered “believing” here shares Matthew’s ⁨πιστ-⁩ (pist-) word family of trust. John links that trust with having life; Matthew links it with asking and receiving.

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