What Does Revelation 13:5 Mean in the King James?
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
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 beast’s terror is real, but its mouth and its reach are both given, and its time is counted.
THE MEANING
The beast speaks blasphemy and exercises real authority, yet neither originates in itself. The repeated “was given” places both its voice and its reach within a limit, and forty-two months gives that reach a measured span. The verse names domination as force with a boundary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a force becomes ultimate simply because it is loud or powerful, or that domination controls how long it lasts.
THE ROOT
ἐδόθη
edothē
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give, grant, or hand over.
“given” in this verse is edothē. English can make the two grants sound like incidental setup, but Greek repeats ἐδόθη (edothē), from δίδωμι (didōmi), for both the mouth and the authority. The beast’s defining voice and its capacity to act are both received; the word makes dependence part of the image, while forty-two months makes its duration countable.
ALSO GROWS
metadidōmi: To share or impart.
μεταδίδωμι
This compound shows giving as something passed on; the beast’s capacity is received, not self-originating.
paradidōmi: To hand over or deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This compound makes the transfer explicit, echoing the verse’s picture of authority as something granted.
apodidōmi: To give back or repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
This compound can describe what is returned or rendered, keeping the root’s sense of something given within a relationship of limits.
THE PATTERN
Scripture depicts earthly power as received or bounded, never as self-originating.
And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.THE THREAD
Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.John uses the same word for authority, ἐξουσία (exousia), and the same giving-root, δίδωμι (didōmi): power exists because it is given. Even “delivered” comes from παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), a compound of that same root, tracing both authority and handing over to the language of transfer.
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