What Does Matthew 3:8 Mean in the King James?
Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
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
A turn becomes visible in the new fruit growing from it.
THE MEANING
The verse links turning with what that turn produces in your life now. Fruit is the visible yield of a changed direction. The words and the harvest belong together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that regret alone is the same as change. The verse points to what grows from the turn as its evidence.
THE ROOT
μετάνοιας
metanoias
GROWS FROM
μετανοέω (metanoeō), from μετά (meta) + νοέω (noeō)
Turn; reorient thought and direction.
“repentance” in this verse is metanoias. Μετάνοια carries the sense of turning, not simply feeling regret. The verse makes that turn perceptible through the fruit that follows it.
ALSO GROWS
metanoeō: Turn, change direction.
μετανοέω
This verb form names the movement expressed by the noun μετάνοια.
noeō: Perceive, consider, understand.
νοέω
The compound joins turning with a changed way of perceiving.
καρπούς
karpous
GROWS FROM
καρπός
karpos
Fruit, produce, yield.
“fruits” in this verse is karpous. Fruit is what a living thing yields from within; it is not attached from outside. Here the harvest lets a change of direction be seen.
ALSO GROWS
karpophoreō: Bear fruit.
καρποφορέω
The related verb makes explicit the growing and yielding contained in the fruit image.
akarpos: Fruitless, unfruitful.
ἄκαρπος
Its opposite shows how fruit names an observable yield, not a claim about what is growing.
ποιήσατε
poiēsate
GROWS FROM
ποιέω
poieō
Do, make, produce.
“Bring forth” in this verse is poiēsate. The Greek verb is the ordinary word for doing or making. The turn appears as something produced in life, not merely an inward feeling.
ALSO GROWS
poiēma: A thing made, workmanship.
ποίημα
The related noun pictures a produced result, echoing the fruit that grows from a turn.
poiētēs: Doer, maker.
ποιητής
This word also joins what is inwardly held to what is actually done.
THE PATTERN
A changed inner direction becomes visible through what it produces.
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.THE THREAD
But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judæa, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.Acts names the motion inside μετάνοια: turn to God, then let works carry that direction outward. Matthew’s fruit and Acts’ works reveal the same connection between turning and its visible yield.
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