What Does Philippians 4:14 Mean in the King James?
Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
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
“Communicate” means to share in common: care crosses into another person’s pressure instead of remaining words sent from outside it.
THE MEANING
Your shared care is good because you enter another person’s pressure and stand with them there. The affliction remains real, yet it is no longer treated as something one person must carry alone. Here, companionship means participation, not merely concern.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Support is not only words or sympathy offered from outside someone’s trouble; it can mean sharing in what they bear.
THE ROOT
συγκοινωνήσαντες
sygkoinōnēsantes
GROWS FROM
κοιν-
koin-
Common, shared; the core of words for sharing and partnership.
The Greek verb συγκοινωνέω (sygkoinōneō, share together) carries the sense of entering a share in something. The word rendered “communicate” here reaches beyond exchanging words: their care makes his affliction something they participate in with him.
ALSO GROWS
koinōnia: sharing in common
κοινωνία
This established word for shared participation makes clear that the verse describes a bond formed through sharing, not just communication.
koinōnos: partner or participant
κοινωνός
A partner has a share in what is happening; the Philippians stand in relation to the affliction as participants.
koinōneō: share or participate
κοινωνέω
This verb names the act beneath the verse: making a share in another’s condition.
θλίψει
thlipsei
GROWS FROM
θλιβ-
thlib-
To press, squeeze, or put under pressure.
The Greek noun θλῖψις (thlipsis, pressure or affliction) carries the image of being pressed. Against that concrete pressure, the sharedness of the first word matters: they do not merely hear that he is afflicted; they join him in it.
ALSO GROWS
thlibō: press, squeeze, or afflict
θλίβω
The verb names the pressing behind the condition called affliction.
thlipsis: pressure or affliction
θλῖψις
This noun names the pressure that the Philippians share with him.
THE PATTERN
Care becomes shared life when people enter another’s burden, suffering, or sorrow alongside them.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.THE THREAD
Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.“Partakers” here is κοινωνός (koinōnos, partner or participant), from the same shared-word family as “communicate” in Philippians 4:14. The bond includes his imprisonment and his work for the gospel: what is shared reaches both affliction and favor.
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