What Does Matthew 3:17 Mean in the King James?
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
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 voice places delight inside the bond itself: the Son is beloved, and the Father is pleased with him.
THE MEANING
The verse lets you hear the Father’s regard spoken plainly: the Son is beloved, and the Father is pleased with him. Love and delight gather around the same person. The declaration gives you a living picture of relationship named openly, not inferred from achievement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that love and approval are separate verdicts: here, the beloved Son is also the one in whom the Father is well pleased.
THE ROOT
ἀγαπητός
agapētos
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
agap-
Love; the Greek word family for loving and being beloved.
“Beloved” belongs to the same Greek word family as “love” and “to love.” The voice names the Son through that bond, so being beloved and being the object of the Father’s delight meet in one declaration.
ALSO GROWS
agapaō: to love
ἀγαπάω
This verb shares the ἀγαπ- family and shows that “beloved” carries the language of love within it.
agapē: love
ἀγάπη
This noun shares the same family, linking the Son’s name as beloved with the broader language of love.
THE PATTERN
Divine delight is spoken through relational names before the work those relationships carry is unfolded.
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.THE THREAD
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.In the Greek translation of Genesis, Isaac is called ἀγαπητός (agapētos, beloved), the same word used for the Son here. The shared word opens a thread between two beloved sons and makes the language of love audible across both passages.
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