What Does Matthew 4:12 Mean in the King James?
Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
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
John is handed over, yet Jesus moves toward Galilee: confinement becomes the point from which the message changes ground.
THE MEANING
A voice is handed over to confinement, and Jesus moves into Galilee; imprisonment and movement occupy the same moment. The verse shows that one voice being confined does not make the message motionless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that locking away a voice means its message has ended.
THE ROOT
παρεδόθη
paredothē
GROWS FROM
δίδω-
didō-
Give; place something into another’s hands.
“cast into prison” in this verse is paredothē. The Greek says John was handed over, making the act of surrender visible beneath the English phrase about prison. That handover is immediately followed by Jesus’s movement into Galilee: one person is confined as the message moves elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: give
δίδωμι
The basic verb exposes the act beneath “handed over”: John is given into another’s power.
paradidōmi: hand over, deliver up
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb used of John here; it names the transfer into custody.
paradosis: tradition; what is handed down
παράδοσις
The same word family can describe what passes from one hand to another, echoing how a message can continue beyond the confinement of one messenger.
ἀνεχώρησεν
anechōrēsen
GROWS FROM
χωρ-
chōr-
Space or region; the verb-family can carry the sense of going, making room, or withdrawing.
The Greek verb can mean withdraw or retire, giving “departed” the shade of a purposeful withdrawal. Its destination, Galilee, makes the movement a new direction rather than an ending.
ALSO GROWS
chōreō: go, proceed; make room
χωρέω
This verb-family ties departure to movement through space, not merely to leaving something behind.
chōra: region, territory
χώρα
The related word for a region brings the verse’s destination into view: Jesus’s withdrawal leads into another place.
anachōreō: withdraw, retire
ἀναχωρέω
This is the verb behind “departed,” framing the move into Galilee as a withdrawal with a destination.
THE PATTERN
When one witness is silenced or scattered, the word continues by another route.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.Where in I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.THE THREAD
When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.The same verb ἀναχωρέω (anachōreō, withdraw) appears in both verses, and each pairs hearing news with a change of place. Matthew repeats the pattern: what Jesus hears is followed by withdrawal.
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