What Does Matthew 5:37 Mean in the King James?
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
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 trustworthy yes needs no verbal scaffolding; the surplus is precisely what the verse puts under suspicion.
THE MEANING
Your speech has a clear center: a yes that stays yes and a no that stays no. The verse names what spills beyond that plainness as coming from evil. The measure is whether your word holds, not how much you wrap around it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Credibility does not come from piling on guarantees; extra words cannot make an unstable yes trustworthy.
THE ROOT
περισσόν
perisson
GROWS FROM
περισσ-
periss-
Beyond, exceeding, or overflowing.
English “more” can sound like a neutral quantity; περισσόν points to what exceeds the yes and no. Its word family carries the sense of abundance and overflow, placing the verse’s focus on surplus itself.
ALSO GROWS
perisseuō: Abound, overflow.
περισσεύω
The same word family makes “more” carry the image of speech spilling past what is needed.
perisseia: Abundance, surplus.
περισσεία
This form makes the excess explicit: the verse concerns what has accumulated beyond a plain yes or no.
λόγος
logos
GROWS FROM
λογ-
log-
Word, saying, or account.
“communication” in this verse is logos. The word here is logos: a word or saying that can stand on its own. Its family also includes a verb for reckoning or accounting, suggesting that speech carries weight and can be held to account.
ALSO GROWS
logizomai: Reckon, count, account.
λογίζομαι
This related word connects speech with what can be weighed or accounted for.
logion: Utterance, saying, oracle.
λόγιον
This branch keeps the focus on a spoken word as something delivered, not merely extra sound.
πονηροῦ
ponērou
GROWS FROM
πονηρ-
ponēr-
Bad, harmful, or wicked.
The phrase can mean “from evil” or “from the evil one”; Greek leaves the source open between a condition and a personal source. Either way, the verse locates the surplus beyond a plain yes or no in a harmful source.
ALSO GROWS
ponēria: Wickedness, evil.
πονηρία
This noun expresses evil as a condition or quality from which speech may come.
ho ponēros: The evil one; also, the wicked one.
ὁ πονηρός
The same word can name a source as a person, preserving the verse’s ambiguity about where the excess comes from.
THE PATTERN
Truthful speech is carried by a word that can stand without surplus guarantees.
That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the LORD thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.THE THREAD
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.James uses the same Greek word, logos, for “word.” Matthew shows a word that stands plainly; James reveals how the tongue’s words reach beyond speech, shaping the whole body.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us