What Does Matthew 3:10 Mean in the King James?
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
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 axe is already at the root: the warning reaches the source of the fruitless life, and ends with the whole tree cut down and cast into fire.
THE MEANING
The warning places the axe at the root now, where the tree is anchored, and its fruit makes visible what it yields. A tree that bears no good fruit is cut down and cast into fire; the image is severe and total. In the surrounding words, inherited religious standing cannot shield a fruitless life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that inherited religious standing can shield a fruitless life from judgment.
THE ROOT
ῥίζα
rhiza
GROWS FROM
ῥιζ-
The root of a plant: the part that anchors and sustains its growth.
The Greek word family can describe taking root or uprooting. The axe is laid where the tree is held in the ground, making this an image of removal at the source, not simply trimming visible branches.
ALSO GROWS
rhizoō: to root or establish firmly
ῥιζόω
A tree’s rooted condition speaks to what holds and sustains its growth.
ekrizoō: to uproot
ἐκριζόω
This branch names removal at the same root level where the axe is laid.
καρπός
karpos
GROWS FROM
καρπ-
Fruit or yield: what a living thing produces.
The verse sets the tree’s yield beside its root: what the tree produces is visible, while the axe reaches what sustains it. The word family holds both bearing fruit and being fruitless, making the tree’s yield central to the image.
ALSO GROWS
karpophoreō: to bear fruit
καρποφορέω
It names the productive side of the same fruit-bearing image.
akarpos: fruitless, unfruitful
ἄκαρπος
It names the absence of yield that the warning describes.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats fruit as the visible yield of a life rooted in a sustaining source.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.THE THREAD
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.Matthew’s “root” and Romans’ “root” use the same Greek word, ῥίζα (rhiza, root). Matthew places the axe at the source; Romans shows that the root and branches belong to one living whole.
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