What Does Matthew 24:39 Mean in the King James?
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
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
Not knowing lasts only until the event arrives, and the Greek word for “coming” also carries the sense of presence.
THE MEANING
You can fail to recognize what is happening until it is already upon you. The verse sets the flood’s taking-away beside the arrival of the Son of Man, where the presence is known by its effects, not by prior recognition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what you fail to recognize cannot reach you.
THE ROOT
ἔγνωσαν
egnōsan
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω (ginōskō), from the γνο-/γνω- stem
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“knew not” in this verse is egnōsan. The people do not recognize what is happening until the flood arrives. This verb can describe recognition, so the verse holds more than missing information: awareness comes only when the event makes itself unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: knowledge
γνῶσις
This related noun shows the same word family expressing what is known.
epiginōskō: recognize, come to know
ἐπιγινώσκω
This related verb makes the recognition sense explicit, illuminating what fails to happen before the flood.
παρουσία
parousia
GROWS FROM
εἰμί (eimi), “to be,” in παρά + εἰμί
To be present; with παρά, to be present or arrive.
“Coming” also carries the sense of presence or arrival. The verse points to a presence whose reality is disclosed in the event itself.
ALSO GROWS
pareimi: be present, arrive
πάρειμι
This related verb gives the sense of becoming present within parousia.
parōn: present
παρών
This form describes someone as present, bringing out the state that the arrival establishes.
THE PATTERN
A decisive event can arrive while its time and meaning remain outside human recognition.
For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.THE THREAD
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.John uses the same verb, γινώσκω (ginōskō, to know or recognize), for the world’s failure to recognize someone present among it. The shared word shows that lack of recognition does not make a presence unreal.
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