What Does Matthew 9:31 Mean in the King James?
But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.
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
His “fame” is the report people carry outward: in Greek, the word for spreading it and the word for fame share a root.
THE MEANING
The report about him moves beyond the place where the witnesses meet him, carried from person to person until the whole region hears it. The preceding demand for silence gives that movement its tension: the boundary stands, and the account crosses it.
THE ROOT
διαφημίζω
diaphēmizō
GROWS FROM
φημ-
To say or speak; by extension, to report or make known.
The verb διαφημίζω (diaphēmizō, “spread abroad”) belongs to the same word family as φήμη (phēmē, “report” or “fame”). The action and its object echo each other: they make his fame by carrying a report about him.
ALSO GROWS
phēmi: To say or speak.
φημί
This is the speaking at the root of the report that travels through the region.
phēmē: A report, rumor, or reputation.
φήμη
This word names what the witnesses spread: fame is a report carried by speech.
THE PATTERN
What is witnessed becomes a report that moves beyond the person who experienced it.
Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard.THE THREAD
But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.Mark uses the same Greek verb, διαφημίζω (diaphēmizō, “spread abroad”), for a report that keeps moving after a healing. The shared root links the report itself with the act of making it known; in Mark, that spread even changes where Jesus can go.
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