What Does Matthew 5:43 Mean in the King James?
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
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 Greek names a neighbour as the one near, making the hidden fault line the boundary between nearness and hostility.
THE MEANING
You hear a rule that gives love to the one near and makes hatred for the enemy sound permissible. The sentence exposes how a boundary around “neighbour” can shrink love and legitimize hostility toward anyone placed outside it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it surfaces is that loving your neighbour gives you permission to hate everyone beyond that boundary.
THE ROOT
πλησίον
plēsion
GROWS FROM
πλησίος
plēsios
Near; close by.
The word is built around nearness: a neighbour is the one near. This makes the pairing with enemy visible as a boundary problem, love is assigned to nearness while hostility is assigned to the one outside it.
ALSO GROWS
plēsios: Near, close by.
πλησίος
It makes the idea of a neighbour as someone near explicit.
plēsiazō: To draw near, approach.
πλησιάζω
The related verb keeps nearness as movement, showing that the neighbour boundary depends on who is considered close.
ἐχθρόν
echthron
GROWS FROM
ἐχθρός
echthros
Hostile, hated; an enemy.
“enemy” in this verse is echthron. The verse uses an adjective as a noun: a person marked by hostility. The related noun ἔχθρα names enmity itself, so the word family holds the person and the hostile relation together.
ALSO GROWS
echthra: Enmity, hostility.
ἔχθρα
It names the hostility that marks the person called an enemy.
echthrainō: To be hostile.
ἐχθραίνω
It expresses hostility as a relation or action, rather than as an unchangeable kind of person.
ἀγαπήσεις
agapēseis
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπάω
agapaō
To love, regard with love.
The line’s love is an active verb, and the same word family includes ἀγάπη, the noun for love, and ἀγαπητός, beloved. The family holds together the act of loving and the one who is loved; the quoted rule exposes how selectively it distributes that action.
ALSO GROWS
agapē: Love.
ἀγάπη
The noun gives the same word family’s name to the love expressed here as an action.
agapētos: Beloved, loved.
ἀγαπητός
It names the person who receives love, linking the act to its recipient.
THE PATTERN
The boundary around whom one loves is crossed when care reaches the enemy.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.THE THREAD
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;The Greek ἐχθρός (echthros, “enemy”) is the same word family behind “enemies” here. The next line keeps hostility in view and extends love across it.
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