What Does Matthew 6:14 Mean in the King James?
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
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
Forgiveness is release: the movement you extend to another is also the movement by which you receive release.
THE MEANING
This verse joins your release of another person’s trespass with your experience of the heavenly Father’s release. The wrong is named, yet it does not have to remain held as a claim between you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that you can receive release while keeping another person permanently bound to their wrong.
THE ROOT
ἀφῆτε
aphēte
GROWS FROM
ἵημι (with ἀπό-, apo-)
Send away, let go, release.
The Greek verb translated “forgive” carries the sense of letting go or sending away. The verse uses this release first for other people’s trespasses and then for the Father’s release toward you, placing both acts in one motion.
ALSO GROWS
áphesis: Release, remission.
ἄφεσις
This related noun can name release or remission, revealing the letting-go beneath the familiar word “forgiveness.”
aphiēmi: Let go, leave, send away, remit.
ἀφίημι
This is the verb behind both instances of “forgive” in the verse: the repeated word makes the exchange of release audible in Greek.
παραπτώματα
paraptōmata
GROWS FROM
πίπτω
píptō
Fall; in the compound, fall beside or aside.
“trespasses” in this verse is paraptōmata. A trespass is pictured as a fall to the side, a misstep. The verse names the wrong plainly while pairing that misstep with release: the fall need not remain held over the person who made it.
ALSO GROWS
parapíptō: Fall beside or fall away.
παραπίπτω
This verb supplies the image beneath “trespass”: a movement off the path.
paráptōma: A false step, lapse, or trespass.
παράπτωμα
The noun used in the verse names the misstep being released; it does not erase the fact that the step went wrong.
THE PATTERN
Release breaks the claim a wrong or debt holds over another person.
And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’s release.Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.THE THREAD
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.The Greek word translated “forgive” is again ἀφίημι (aphiēmi): let go, release. Here the release is spoken over people causing harm, showing that the word names a response to an actual wrong, not a claim that no wrong occurred.
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