What Does Matthew 24:29 Mean in the King James?
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
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 does not leave even the powers of the heavens outside the shaking.
THE MEANING
You meet a sequence of pressure followed by cosmic upheaval: the sun is darkened, the moon withholds her light, the stars fall, and the powers of the heavens are shaken. The verse gives this event an immense scale, with nothing in the visible heavens described as untouched.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the heavens are a permanent, untouched frame for every upheaval.
THE ROOT
σαλευθήσονται
saleuthēsontai
GROWS FROM
σαλευ-
saleu-
To shake, move to and fro, or unsettle.
“shaken” in this verse is saleuthēsontai. The Greek verb carries the sense of being unsettled, not merely moving. Matthew applies it to the powers of the heavens, placing even what seems fixed above the world inside the disturbance.
ALSO GROWS
saleuō: To shake, toss, or unsettle.
σαλεύω
This is the verb behind the verse’s future form, “shall be shaken.”
asaleutos: Unshaken, firm.
ἀσάλευτος
This related word names what cannot be moved in Hebrews 12:28, sharpening the contrast with the powers shaken here.
θλῖψις
thlipsis
GROWS FROM
θλιβ-
thlib-
To press or squeeze; by extension, pressure and distress.
“Tribulation” can sound like an abstract hardship, while the Greek keeps the image of being pressed. That pressure comes immediately before the shaking of the heavens in the verse’s sequence.
ALSO GROWS
thlibō: To press, afflict, or oppress.
θλίβω
The verb preserves the physical image beneath the verse’s word for tribulation.
thlibomenoi: Those being pressed or afflicted.
θλιβόμενοι
This verbal form makes distress an ongoing pressure, echoing the force carried by “tribulation.”
σκοτισθήσεται
skotisthēsetai
GROWS FROM
σκοτι-
skoti-
Darkness; to make or become dark.
The sun is described as being darkened, and the same darkness-root links that change to the verse’s withheld moonlight. Darkness is part of the cosmic disturbance, not an incidental detail.
ALSO GROWS
skotizō: To darken.
σκοτίζω
This verb form carries the root’s action into the verse’s description of the sun.
skotia: Darkness.
σκοτία
The noun names the condition implied when the sun and moon no longer give light.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays the unmaking of a visible order through darkened lights, falling stars, and shaken heavens.
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.THE THREAD
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.Matthew and Hebrews use forms of the same Greek verb, σαλεύω (saleuō), meaning “to shake or unsettle.” Hebrews extends the shaking to earth and heaven together, opening the scale of Matthew’s image further.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us