What Does Philippians 4:17 Mean in the King James?
Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
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 gift is not the final value here; the fruit it grows keeps increasing in the giver’s account.
THE MEANING
The verse distinguishes the gift from what it brings forth: the gift passes, while fruit keeps increasing to your account. Its focus is the growing yield of generosity, not merely what changes hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that generosity only subtracts from the giver: what is given becomes fruit that increases to the giver’s account.
THE ROOT
καρπὸν
karpon
GROWS FROM
καρπ
karp
Fruit, produce, yield.
English “fruit” can sound decorative, but καρπός means produce, the yield that grows and can multiply. The contrast shifts the center from the transferred gift to the increasing result in the giver’s account.
ALSO GROWS
karpophoreō: To bear fruit.
καρποφορέω
This branch makes fruit an outcome that is produced and grows, matching the verse’s focus on what the gift brings forth.
karpophoros: Fruitful, bearing fruit.
καρποφόρος
Fruitfulness describes an ongoing quality, echoing the increase in the verse rather than a one-time transfer.
λόγον
logon
GROWS FROM
λογ
log
The λόγος word family carries the senses of word or statement, as well as account and reckoning.
“Account” is λόγον, a form of λόγος, whose range includes word, statement, account, and reckoning. Related forms mean to reckon or calculate, so the verse presents fruit as something registered to the giver while the same word-family also carries the sense of what is spoken.
ALSO GROWS
logizomai: To reckon, count, or consider.
λογίζομαι
This branch makes the accounting image concrete: the fruit is reckoned to the giver.
logismos: A reckoning, calculation, or account.
λογισμός
This branch shares the sense of accounting and clarifies the weight of “to your account.”
THE PATTERN
Generosity is measured by the life it produces, which multiplies beyond the original gift.
Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.THE THREAD
Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)This verse uses καρπός (karpos), the same Greek word for fruit, and pairs increase with fruit just as Philippians does. Here the image starts with seed sown and becomes fruit, opening “your account” as a growing yield rather than a one-time payment.
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