What Does Philemon 1:24 Mean in the King James?
Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.
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
Four distinct names gather under one shared identity: people working alongside one another.
THE MEANING
These names remain distinct, yet the verse holds them together as fellow workers. The work takes shape through people laboring alongside one another.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that meaningful work belongs to one person alone gives way to a picture of work shared among named companions.
THE ROOT
συνεργοί
synergoi
GROWS FROM
ἐργ- (erg-), as in ἔργον (ergon)
Work, deed, task, the doing itself.
“fellowlabourers” in this verse is synergoi. The word joins σύν (syn, with) and ἔργον (ergon, work): the “with” is built into the work. “Fellow” can sound like a social label in English, while the Greek word names people joined in the doing.
ALSO GROWS
synergos: Co-worker; one who works alongside.
συνεργός
This singular form makes the verse’s shared labor visible in each named person.
ergatēs: Worker; laborer.
ἐργάτης
It shares the work-root and shows that the group is identified by the labor they carry.
THE PATTERN
Shared work takes shape through people laboring alongside one another.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.THE THREAD
We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.“Fellowhelpers” translates συνεργοί (synergoi, co-workers), the same Greek word rendered “fellowlabourers” here. In both verses, companionship is named through work people share.
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