What Does Matthew 9:8 Mean in the King James?
But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
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 verse makes God’s authority visible in human beings while keeping God as its source.
THE MEANING
God’s restoring authority becomes visible through human beings, and the crowd’s response recognizes the one who gives it. The gift reaches people without making them its source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine authority is visible only apart from human beings: here God gives it among them, and the crowd still recognizes God as its source.
THE ROOT
ἐξουσίαν
exousian
GROWS FROM
ἔξεστι
exesti
It is permitted; it lies within one’s right or capacity to act.
The Greek word translated “power” is exousia: authority or right to act, not mere strength. Its connection with exesti, “it is permitted,” gives the verse the sense of authority granted to human beings.
ALSO GROWS
exousia: Authority, right, jurisdiction.
ἐξουσία
This is the noun used in the verse: the authority God gives.
exousiazō: To exercise authority or have mastery.
ἐξουσιάζω
It shows the same word family extending from granted authority to its exercise.
δόντα
donta
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or grant.
The word translated “had given” names God as the giver of the authority. The same family names both the act of giving and what is given, so the authority arrives as a gift rather than a possession claimed as its own.
ALSO GROWS
dosis: Giving; a gift.
δόσις
It holds together the act of giving and what passes from giver to recipient.
dōrea: Gift; something freely given.
δωρεά
It makes the verse’s transfer of authority legible as a gift.
ἐδόξασαν
edoxasan
GROWS FROM
δοξάζω
doxazō
To honor or recognize as weighty.
“glorified” in this verse is edoxasan. The crowd’s response gives weight to God as the source, even as authority appears among human beings. The verse holds both together: the gift is seen in people, and its weight is recognized in God.
ALSO GROWS
doxa: Honor, reputation, glory; weight.
δόξα
This noun carries the recognition and weight expressed by the crowd’s response.
endoxos: Held in honor; notable.
ἔνδοξος
It shows the same family describing someone regarded with honor.
THE PATTERN
Authority entrusted by God becomes visible through human beings while its source remains God.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.THE THREAD
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.John 17:2 repeats the same pairing of “given” and “power,” using the same Greek roots found here. The shared wording reveals authority as something received from God and exercised toward others.
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