What Does Matthew 6:26 Mean in the King James?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
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
Before your output enters the picture, the Father is already sustaining life, and this verse asks whether you are worth less than the birds he feeds.
THE MEANING
The Father sustains the birds even though their lives are not organized around sowing, harvesting, and storing. His care is already visible there, and the question places you within that care as one of greater worth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that your safety and worth depend entirely on what you produce and store; the verse points to creatures the Father sustains without either.
THE ROOT
τρέφει
trephei
GROWS FROM
τρεφ- (treph-), from τρέφω (trephō)
To nourish, rear, or bring up.
The verb translated “feedeth” can mean nourish or rear. Its word family describes both food and the raising of a life, so the birds’ feeding is ongoing nurture, not merely a meal.
ALSO GROWS
trophē: Food or nourishment.
τροφή
This noun names what sustains a life, showing the shared root between feeding and nourishment.
anatrephō: To nourish or bring up.
ἀνατρέφω
In Acts 7:20 it describes Moses being “nourished up,” revealing the family’s sense of care that sustains a life as it grows.
διαφέρετε
diaphérete
GROWS FROM
φέρω (pherō), the base verb in διαφέρω (diapherō)
To bear or carry; in διαφέρω, to differ, surpass, or be of greater value.
The word rendered “better” is a form of diapherō, whose range includes “differ,” “surpass,” and “be worth more.” Its word family makes the question one of real distinction in value, grounded here in the Father’s care.
ALSO GROWS
diaphoros: Different, distinct, or more excellent.
διάφορος
This related form carries the same language of distinction that underlies the question about the reader’s worth.
diaphora: Difference or distinction.
διαφορά
This noun makes explicit the idea of a difference that the verse expresses as greater value.
THE PATTERN
Life is sustained by the Father’s provision beyond what each creature can secure by its own labor.
These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.THE THREAD
In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:“Nourished up” is a compound in the same Greek word family as “feedeth.” The shared root opens feeding as nurture that sustains and raises a life, not simply food placed before it.
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