What Does Matthew 4:24 Mean in the King James?
And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
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 people are described as pressed by many forms of affliction, and the closing verb gathers them all into care: he heals them.
THE MEANING
The verse names diseases, torments, possession with devils, lunacy, and paralysis, then says he heals them. The many forms of suffering do not make the people unreachable; healing meets them amid what presses on them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that suffering too strange, severe, or varied to be understood is beyond reach: every condition named here is included in the healing.
THE ROOT
ἐθεράπευσεν
etherapeusen
GROWS FROM
θεραπευ-
Greek lexical stem
To attend to, care for, or heal.
“healed” in this verse is etherapeusen. The verb can mean to attend or care for as well as to heal. Its place at the end gathers every condition named before it into one response of direct care.
ALSO GROWS
therapeia: Care, service, or healing.
θεραπεία
It keeps healing connected to care directed toward someone.
therapeutēs: An attendant or one who serves.
θεραπευτής
This related word echoes the attending and serving carried within the verb translated “healed.”
συνεχομένους
synechomenous
GROWS FROM
συνεχ- (from συνέχω, synechō)
To hold, press, or constrain.
The phrase translated “taken with” describes people as held or pressed by what afflicts them. The final verb moves the scene from that pressure into attending care.
ALSO GROWS
synechō: To hold together, press, or constrain.
συνέχω
This is the verb behind the description of people held by their afflictions.
synochē: Distress or pressure.
συνοχή
The related noun carries the same sense of being pressed, making visible the force implied by “taken with.”
THE PATTERN
Affliction is met at the point where it presses people, and care reaches across its many forms.
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.THE THREAD
And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.The same Greek verb for healing appears here and in Matthew 4:24. In both verses, its sense of attending and caring gives the healing a personal closeness: the action reaches the person who is suffering.
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