What Does Matthew 21:4 Mean in the King James?
All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
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
Fulfillment is where a spoken word fills out into lived reality.
THE MEANING
The verse holds speech and what happens together: what is spoken reaches its fullness in what is done. Its focus now falls on a word taking visible shape as events unfold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that spoken words remain detached from what happens; here, the word reaches its full shape in action.
THE ROOT
πληρωθῇ
plērōthē
GROWS FROM
πληρόω (plēroō), stem πληρ- (plēr-)
to fill, make full, bring to fullness
The word translated “fulfilled” also carries the image of filling something until it is full. What is spoken reaches its full measure in what is done, holding speech and event together as one movement.
ALSO GROWS
plērēs: full, complete
πλήρης
This related word makes the shared image of fullness clearer: fulfillment is a word coming to its complete expression.
plērōma: fullness, that which fills
πλήρωμα
This branch names the state or measure of fullness that the spoken word reaches in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word reaches its fullness when it takes visible form in what happens.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.THE THREAD
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.“Fulfilled” here and “fulfil” there translate forms of the same Greek verb, πληρόω (plēroō), meaning to fill or bring to fullness. The connection opens fulfillment as a word or teaching reaching its full expression, rather than remaining an uncompleted statement.
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