What Does Matthew 8:30 Mean in the King James?
And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
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 herd is far off, but distance measures where it is, not whether the next movement can reach it.
THE MEANING
You see the men and the herd occupying separate places, with the herd grazing at a distance. The space matters, but it does not settle what can reach across it; the next movement in the scene crosses that distance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that distance keeps an unseen disturbance from reaching what lies beyond it.
THE ROOT
μακρὰν
makran
GROWS FROM
μακρ
makr
Longness or extension across space or time.
“off” in this verse is makran. Here μακράν marks the herd’s spatial distance. The same μακρ- family also reaches into time through μακροθυμία, patience or being slow to heat, so the word-family holds one idea of length across space and sustained time.
ALSO GROWS
makros: long; far, distant
μακρός
This adjective carries length across space, illuminating the distance between the men and the grazing herd.
makrothymia: patience; slow to heat
μακροθυμία
This branch carries the same sense of length into time, where a response is held back over a long span.
THE PATTERN
Distance names where something is, but does not by itself exclude it from nearness or healing.
I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.THE THREAD
And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.Luke uses the same Greek distance word, μακράν, for the son who is still far away when his father sees him. In both verses, distance is the space where the next movement begins.
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