What Does Revelation 8:8 Mean in the King James?
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
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 sea is not merely where the burning mountain lands; a third of it becomes something else.
THE MEANING
You face devastation whose reach is measured in the waters: something like a great mountain burning with fire is hurled into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood. The impact reaches beyond what falls; the surrounding realm is changed. The verse leaves that damage visible and unsoftened.
THE ROOT
ἐγένετο
egeneto
GROWS FROM
ΓΙΝ-/ΓΕΝ- (gin-/gen-)
To come into being, happen, or become.
“became” in this verse is egeneto. The verb marks a change in what the sea is: a third of it becomes blood. Its root kinship with words for birth and coming into being sharpens the image, the waters enter a changed state, not merely a state of being struck.
ALSO GROWS
genesis: Origin, birth, or coming into being.
γένεσις
It carries the same movement into being, echoing the verse’s emphasis on a new state taking shape.
genea: Generation or lineage.
γενεά
It names what comes forth across a generation, extending the root’s sense of becoming into what arises from it.
ἐβλήθη
eblēthē
GROWS FROM
ΒΑΛΛ-/ΒΟΛ- (ball-/bol-)
To throw, hurl, or put.
“was cast” in this verse is eblēthē. The verb keeps force in the image: a mountain-like mass is hurled into the sea. Then the sentence moves from that violent impact to the sea’s transformation, showing destruction reaching beyond the thing that falls.
ALSO GROWS
parabolē: A comparison or parable; something set beside something else.
παραβολή
The word preserves the root’s sense of putting or setting, showing how the same action can also place one thing alongside another.
symballō: To bring together or compare.
συμβάλλω
This branch carries the same root into the act of putting things together, a striking contrast to the violent hurling in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Water is no passive backdrop in scripture’s images of upheaval; its transformation or engulfment shows how far the force reaches.
And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.THE THREAD
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.The same Greek verb, ἐγένετο (egeneto), marks the sea’s becoming in both verses. Here a third of the sea becomes blood; later, the sea becomes like the blood of a dead man and every living soul in it dies.
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