What Does Matthew 8:28 Mean in the King James?
And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
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 scene’s force lies in the road it closes: two men’s torment makes passage impossible for everyone.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now of torment that draws life toward the tombs and makes the shared way impassable. Its effect reaches beyond the two men: everyone nearby loses passage through that road. The constriction is both personal suffering and a barrier in the common way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that torment stays contained within the person experiencing it: here, it makes the shared way impassable.
THE ROOT
ὁδός
hodos
GROWS FROM
ὁδ-
hod-
Road, route, or course of passage.
The word translated “way” is hodos, a road and, by extension, a course of passage. Its compound exodos means an exit or departure, so the word-family also holds the possibility of a way out. Here, the route is closed to everyone by the violence of the scene.
ALSO GROWS
exodos: Exit, departure, or way out.
ἔξοδος
Formed with hodos, it shows the same word-family naming a path out, while this verse describes a path no one can pass.
hodēgeō: To lead or guide along a way.
ὁδηγέω
This branch makes the way something a person can be led through; here, passage is blocked for everyone.
THE PATTERN
When constriction blocks passage, deliverance appears as opened space or a way through.
He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.THE THREAD
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.Matthew calls the blocked road hodos; John uses that same Greek word when Jesus says, “I am the way.” The word shifts from a route no one can traverse to a way embodied as the one through whom access becomes possible.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us