What Does Mark 6:33 Mean?
And the people saw them going away, and many came to know him, and they ran there on their feet out of all the cities, and went ahead of them, and came together to him.
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
And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.THE KEY
Here, knowing Jesus is recognition that moves the whole person toward him and outruns distance.
THE MEANING
When you recognize Jesus, knowing becomes movement toward the one you recognize. What seems like his departure does not end the encounter; even the distance becomes a path of gathering around him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that when Jesus seems to be leaving, the encounter is over.
THE ROOT
ἐπέγνωσαν
epégnōsan
GROWS FROM
γινώσκω
ginōskō
To know or perceive through recognition.
“came to know him” in this verse is epégnōsan. The word is a form of knowing built on recognition, not merely possessing information. The verse moves straight from recognizing Jesus to running toward him: this knowing shows itself in the body.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: To know or perceive.
γινώσκω
The base verb shows the seed beneath the verse’s word for recognizing Jesus.
gnōsis: Knowledge or understanding.
γνῶσις
This noun shares the knowing-root, while the verse depicts recognition becoming more than a fact held in the mind.
epiginōskō: To recognize or know fully.
ἐπιγινώσκω
This is the verb used in the verse; its recognition of Jesus leads directly into the crowd’s movement toward him.
συνῆλθον
synēlthon
GROWS FROM
ἔρχομαι
erchomai
To come or go; with συν-, to come together.
“came together” in this verse is synēlthon. The crowd does not merely reach the same place: the verb carries the sense of coming together. The English can make the gathering sound like a detail of travel, while the Greek makes convergence part of the scene’s movement toward Jesus.
ALSO GROWS
erchomai: To come or go.
ἔρχομαι
This is the verb-family seed beneath the verse’s word for coming together.
sunerchomai: To come together or gather.
συνέρχομαι
This compound adds “together” to the same coming-root and names the crowd’s convergence.
proserchomai: To approach or come toward.
προσέρχομαι
This branch makes the directional pull of coming toward someone explicit, echoing the crowd’s movement unto Jesus.
THE PATTERN
Recognition of the one who draws people near becomes movement toward him.
Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and nations who did not know you will run to you, because of the LORD your God, and for the Set-Apart One of Israel, for he has adorned you.And a great crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he did for the ones without strength.As he went out on the way, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the life of the ages?THE THREAD
I am the good shepherd. I perceive my own, and my own perceive me.The same Greek knowing-root appears in both verses. Here recognition sends the crowd toward Jesus; there Jesus describes that knowing as mutual: he knows his sheep, and they know him.
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