What Does Revelation 18:13 Mean in the King James?
And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of 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 inventory ends by naming human bodies and living souls as merchandise.
THE MEANING
The verse exposes a trade that counts spices, grain, animals, and vehicles alongside human bodies and living souls. It names the whole person as something this commerce is willing to price.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that exploitation takes only a person’s labor: the list names the body and the living soul as merchandise.
THE ROOT
σώματα
sōmata
GROWS FROM
σῶμα
sōma
body; an embodied person
The Greek word rendered “slaves” is literally “bodies.” Set beside horses and chariots in the inventory, it brings the human body itself into view as something being traded.
ALSO GROWS
sōma: Body; an embodied person.
σῶμα
This is the singular form behind the verse’s “bodies,” naming the person in bodily form within the trade list.
sōmatikos: Bodily; relating to the body.
σωματικός
In 1 Timothy 4:8, the same stem describes bodily exercise, showing its connection to physical existence.
ψυχὰς
psychas
GROWS FROM
ψυχ-
psych-
living soul; the living self
“souls” in this verse is psychas. The word is ψυχή (psychē), understood as a living soul. Together with “bodies,” it names both the embodied person and the living self at the point where the inventory puts people up for trade.
ALSO GROWS
psychē: Living soul; life or self.
ψυχή
This is the singular form of “souls” in the verse, retaining the sense of a living person rather than an abstract object.
psychikos: Natural; pertaining to the living self.
ψυχικός
In 1 Corinthians 2:14, this related form describes the “natural man,” extending the same word-family to a person’s living self.
THE PATTERN
When people are made tradable, scripture names human beings among the commodities and exposes the violence in that exchange.
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;THE THREAD
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?“Soul” here is the same Greek word, ψυχή (psychē), that Revelation names in its inventory. Matthew puts the value of that living self against the gain of the whole world, sharpening the cost hidden in Revelation’s list.
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