What Does Matthew 25:38 Mean in the King James?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
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 Greek word for “stranger” also means “guest,” holding distance and welcome together in a single word.
THE MEANING
The King is met in ordinary welcome: a stranger is received, and a naked body is clothed. Recognition does not come first; the welcome can be real before its full meaning is known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the sacred must be recognizable before an encounter can matter: here, the King is met through a stranger’s welcome and a person’s need for covering.
THE ROOT
ξένον
xenon
GROWS FROM
ξεν-
xen-
Stranger, foreigner, or guest: someone outside the household who may be received as a guest.
English “stranger” emphasizes distance, while ξένος (xenos) can also mean “guest.” The same word-family appears in φιλοξενία (philoxenia), hospitality toward strangers, joining the outsider and the welcomed guest as two states of one person.
ALSO GROWS
philoxenia: Hospitality; literally, love of the stranger or guest.
φιλοξενία
This branch shows that welcome is already bound into the language of the stranger: receiving the outsider is a form of hospitality.
xenizō: To receive as a guest, show hospitality, or entertain a stranger.
ξενίζω
The shared root connects the stranger in this verse with the act of making that person a guest.
THE PATTERN
The presence of the divine is encountered through concrete welcome to outsiders in need.
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.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?He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.THE THREAD
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.Hebrews uses φιλοξενίας (philoxenias, hospitality to strangers), from the same ξεν- (xen-, stranger or guest) word-family as “stranger” here. Both verses place a hidden presence within an act of welcome before the host knows who has arrived.
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