What Does Matthew 7:17 Mean in the King James?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
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 fruit is the tree’s hidden condition made visible.
THE MEANING
What is within a life becomes visible in what it produces. A good tree brings forth good fruit; a decaying tree brings forth evil fruit. The yield reveals the tree’s condition.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that repeated outcomes have no connection to what is taking root within a life.
THE ROOT
σαπρόν
sapron
GROWS FROM
σηπ-
sēp-
Rotting, decay.
The word translated “corrupt” carries the image of something rotten or decaying. The tree’s harmful yield is not an unrelated flaw: it reveals a condition already present within it.
ALSO GROWS
sēpō: To rot or decay.
σήπω
This verb makes the word’s image active: the tree is not merely labeled bad but pictured through decay.
sapria: Rottenness or putrefaction.
σαπρία
This noun names the decayed condition that the tree’s fruit makes visible.
καρπός
karpos
GROWS FROM
καρπ-
karp-
Fruit, yield, produce.
The Greek word for “fruit” also appears in words meaning “bear fruit” and “fruit-bearing.” The yield is not an accessory to the tree; it is how the life within it becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
karpophoreō: To bear or produce fruit.
καρποφορέω
This verb keeps fruit and the act of producing it in one word family, echoing the verse’s link between a tree and its yield.
karpophoria: Fruit-bearing or fruitfulness.
καρποφορία
This noun names the condition of producing fruit, showing that the verse describes an ongoing expression of the tree’s nature.
THE PATTERN
What is rooted in a living source becomes visible in the fruit it produces.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.THE THREAD
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.The Greek word for “fruit,” καρπός (karpos), is shared by both verses. John shows the tree-and-fruit picture as a living connection: the branch bears fruit as it abides in the vine.
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