What Does Matthew 9:11 Mean in the King James?
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
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 table brings people called “sinners”, people marked by missing, within reach, exposing how the label can become a wall.
THE MEANING
The question still asks who is fit to share a table. It names tax collectors and people marked by missing, then treats their presence near Jesus as a problem. The verse lets you see the boundary in the very act of sharing a meal across it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A person labeled a sinner is too compromised to share a table with.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτωλῶν
hamartōlōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
to miss, to go wrong
“sinners” in this verse is hamartōlōn. The word keeps a person called a “sinner” linguistically joined to the condition of missing. At the table, that label marks the people Jesus sits with; it does not keep them at a distance.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: to miss, to go wrong
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb beneath the label makes “sinner” a word connected to missing, rather than an unrelated kind of person.
hamartia: missing; wrongdoing
ἁμαρτία
This related noun carries the same root into the condition named by the label, illuminating who is present at the table.
THE PATTERN
God’s table gathers people across boundaries that mark some as outside.
And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.THE THREAD
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.The word rendered “sinners” is ἁμαρτωλούς (hamartōlous, “sinners”), from ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō, “to miss”), the same word family found in Matthew. Luke’s verse connects that label to a call, while Matthew shows Jesus already sharing a table with those who bear it.
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