What Does Matthew 24:20 Mean in the King James?
But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
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 holds escape and its conditions together: a way out can still be made harder by when it comes.
THE MEANING
When escape is necessary, the circumstances around it still matter. The verse speaks of flight through a particular season and day, holding the need to get out together with the conditions through which that movement must pass.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once a way out appears, the conditions surrounding escape no longer matter.
THE ROOT
φυγή
phygē
GROWS FROM
φυγ-
to flee, escape, or get away
The Greek word names flight as movement out of danger, not an abstract idea of deliverance. Its word family keeps the fleeing person and the act of escape joined together.
ALSO GROWS
pheugō: flee, escape
φεύγω
The verb names the movement contained in the noun flight.
phygas: fugitive, one who has fled
φυγάς
This word names the person defined by that same movement out.
χειμῶνος
cheimōnos
GROWS FROM
χειμ-
winter, the storm season
Winter names a real condition through which flight may have to pass. The same word family also speaks of being buffeted by storm, bringing the exposed quality of that season into view without turning it into a metaphor.
ALSO GROWS
cheimōn: winter; storm
χειμών
The dictionary form holds both the season named in the verse and its stormy weather sense.
cheimazō: be buffeted by a storm; pass the winter
χειμάζω
This verb shows the word family extending from the season to what a person undergoes in it.
σαββάτῳ
sabbatō
GROWS FROM
σαββατ-
Sabbath, a day of cessation or rest; a Greek borrowing from Hebrew שַׁבָּת (shabbat)
“Sabbath day” in this verse is sabbatō. The verse places urgent flight beside a day marked by cessation. Their pairing lets the reader feel the tension between necessary movement and the conditions surrounding it.
ALSO GROWS
sabbatismos: Sabbath rest
σαββατισμός
This related noun preserves the Sabbath’s association with rest and cessation.
sabbatizō: keep the Sabbath
σαββατίζω
This verb carries the Sabbath word into an act shaped by that day’s observance.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance takes place through concrete conditions, so the path out and the circumstances of its passage belong together.
Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.THE THREAD
And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.Mark uses the same Greek word, φυγή (phygē, flight), keeping the escape itself in focus. Matthew names both winter and the Sabbath day, showing how the conditions around that movement matter.
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