What Does Matthew 9:21 Mean in the King James?
For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
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 word rendered “whole” also means “deliver”: here, healing is the body being brought safely through.
THE MEANING
Her inner sentence holds a trust that one point of contact can carry her through. Wholeness here reaches the body as deliverance, not an abstract status. The verse speaks now to the reader as a real possibility of being brought through what has held the body.
THE ROOT
σωθήσομαι
sōthēsomai
GROWS FROM
σῴζω
sōzō
To deliver, bring safely through, or preserve; in healing contexts, to bring to wholeness.
The Greek form translated “whole” belongs to the same verb used for delivering or bringing someone safely through. Her sentence holds bodily healing inside that larger movement of deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
diasōzō: Deliver safely; bring through
διασῴζω
Matthew 14:36 uses this compound in the phrase “made perfectly whole,” joining the touch of the garment to being brought safely through.
sōtēria: Deliverance
σωτηρία
This related noun makes explicit the deliverance already carried in the word translated “whole.”
sōtēr: Deliverer
σωτήρ
This related word names the one who brings someone through, keeping the verse’s bodily healing connected to deliverance.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is received as deliverance reaches a person through contact with its source.
And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.THE THREAD
And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.The Greek “whole” here and “made perfectly whole” there are forms of σῴζω (sōzō, deliver or bring safely through); Matthew 14:36 uses its compound διασῴζω (diasōzō, bring safely through). The repeated garment-touch makes the root’s link between healing and deliverance visible.
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