What Does Matthew 25:36 Mean in the King James?
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
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 person who is exposed, sick, or confined is not merely someone near Jesus; this verse presents that person as where Jesus is met.
THE MEANING
Need takes visible, bodily forms: exposure, illness, and confinement. Jesus is present in the person who needs covering, attention, or company, so care for that person becomes an encounter with him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that Jesus is found only in religious spaces, far from ordinary human vulnerability.
THE ROOT
ἐπεσκέψασθε
epeskepsasthe
GROWS FROM
ἐπισκεπ-
episkep-
To look upon attentively, inspect, or attend to; in this verse, to visit with care.
“Visited” carries more than arriving in someone’s presence: it means attending to that person. The Greek family also includes ἐπίσκεψις (episkepsis), meaning an attentive visit or inspection, making the act of seeing inseparable from giving attention.
ALSO GROWS
skeptomai: Look at, consider.
σκέπτομαι
This base verb gives “visited” the sense of turning one’s attention toward someone.
episkepsis: Attentive visit, inspection, or care.
ἐπίσκεψις
This related noun shows how looking upon someone can become sustained attention to their condition.
περιβάλλω
periballō
GROWS FROM
βαλλ- (ball-), with περί (peri, “around”)
βάλλω (ballō) means to throw or put; περί (peri) means around. Together, περιβάλλω means to put or throw around, and can mean clothe.
“clothed” in this verse is periballō. The verb pictures covering as something placed around a person. The clothing is concrete: what is exposed receives a covering.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: Throw, cast, or put.
βάλλω
It is the action at the heart of the verb: something is placed around the person.
peribolē: A covering or garment.
περιβολή
This related noun makes the surrounding layer explicit: clothing is a covering placed around someone.
φυλακή
phylakē
GROWS FROM
φυλακ- / φυλασσ- (phylak- / phylass-)
The word is related to φυλάσσω (phylassō), to guard or keep watch; φυλακή can mean a guard post or prison.
“Prison” names confinement, while its Greek word also carries the idea of guarding or keeping watch. In the verse, the confined person is not overlooked: someone comes to them.
ALSO GROWS
phylassō: Guard, keep watch over.
φυλάσσω
It links the place of confinement with the act of watching over someone.
phylax: Guard or watcher.
φύλαξ
This related word makes the guarding sense within φυλακή easier to hear.
THE PATTERN
Care becomes visible by covering exposed need, attending to affliction, and drawing near to people who are confined.
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.THE THREAD
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.Matthew’s “visited” and James’s “to visit” are forms of the same Greek verb, ἐπισκέπτομαι (episkeptomai), meaning to look upon attentively and attend to. James shows that this attention reaches people in affliction; Matthew places the same kind of attentive presence beside the sick and the imprisoned.
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