What Does Mark 6:17 Mean?
For Herod himself had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her.THE KEY
When a ruler’s taking is exposed, power can answer by binding the one who names it.
THE MEANING
A wrong that is named can provoke the power implicated in it to seize and confine the speaker. The binding restricts John’s body, while the reason for it remains visible: Herod has married his brother’s wife. The next verse makes clear what John has said about that marriage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that confinement proves the speaker deserves to be silenced. Here, the confinement reveals the ruler’s response to what John names.
THE ROOT
ἔδησεν
edēsen
GROWS FROM
δέω (deō), δεσ- (des-)
to bind or tie
Greek keeps the act of binding, the bond it makes, and the person bound in one word family. The verse’s word for “prison,” φυλακή (phylakē), is separate: it names a guarded place, while “bound” names what Herod does to John.
ALSO GROWS
desmos: bond, tie
δέσμος
The bond is the restraint made by the act of binding; John is not simply kept in a place but made captive.
desmios: prisoner, one who is bound
δέσμιος
The same word family names the person by the binding imposed on him, keeping the act and its human cost together.
THE PATTERN
When a speaker’s words threaten a ruler’s control, the ruler can answer by confining the speaker.
And say, Thus says the king, Put this man in the prison, and feed him bread of pressing and water of pressing, until I come in wholeness.And the princes were angry with Jeremiah and struck him, and set him in the house of restraint, in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that house into a house of restraint.And when they had laid many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the keeper of the bonds to keep them securely.THE THREAD
For John had said to Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.This verse names the speech behind the arrest: John says Herod’s marriage is unlawful. The binding in verse 17 follows that exposure, making confinement the ruler’s answer to the words.
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