What Does 1 Timothy 1:9 Mean?
Having seen this, that the instruction is not laid down for the aligned one, but for the unbounded and those who will not be placed under, for those without awe and those missing the mark, for the unset-apart and those beyond the threshold, for slayers of fathers and of mothers, for slayers of men,
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
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,THE KEY
What the KJV calls “made for” carries the image of being “laid down for”: instruction marks the boundary where conduct has broken alignment.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now as a distinction in function: instruction addresses conduct that rejects order and harms others, while the aligned person is not its target. Its list moves from disregard and irreverence to profaning and killing, including the murder of a father or mother. The text names that violence directly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being subjected to rules is what makes a person aligned: here, instruction is laid down for disorderly and violent conduct, not as the source of the aligned person’s identity.
THE ROOT
ἀνόμοις
anomois
GROWS FROM
νόμος
nom-
Instruction, an established norm or rule.
“the unbounded” in this verse is anomois. The Greek word for “lawless” is built from νόμος (nomos, instruction) with a prefix meaning “without.” English separates “law” from “lawless,” but the Greek keeps their shared seed visible: the verse places those without instruction opposite the aligned person.
ALSO GROWS
nomos: Instruction, law, or an established norm.
νόμος
This is the base word translated “law”; it reveals the shared stem inside “lawless.”
nomimos: Lawful, or in accordance with a norm.
νόμιμος
Its positive form shows how the same word-family can name conduct within instruction as well as conduct without it.
δικαίῳ
dikaiō
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Rightness, justice, or being in proper alignment.
The word belongs to the same family as δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē, alignment). The verse contrasts the aligned person with the disorder named in its list, rather than presenting instruction as what creates that person’s alignment.
ALSO GROWS
dikaiosynē: Alignment, rightness, or righteousness.
δικαιοσύνη
This branch makes visible the shared idea between the person called righteous and the condition of alignment.
dikaioō: To justify or regard as just.
δικαιόω
The related verb connects the person’s description to the act of recognizing what is right.
κεῖται
keitai
GROWS FROM
κεῖμαι
keimai
To lie, be laid, or be set in place.
The verb carries the image of something laid down or set in place. Heard alongside “lawless,” it lets the sentence picture instruction as a boundary placed where conduct has gone outside its order.
ALSO GROWS
prokeimai: To be set before or lie ahead.
πρόκειμαι
This related form preserves the image of something placed in front of someone, like a boundary or course.
apokeimai: To be laid up or stored.
ἀπόκειμαι
This form keeps the root’s sense of something being laid or set in a place.
THE PATTERN
Instruction makes disorder visible and turns the living soul toward life.
The instruction of the LORD is whole, turning back the living soul; the witness of the LORD is steady, making the open ones wise.For the command is a lamp, and the instruction is light, and the reproofs that straighten are the way of life.Therefore by the works of the instruction no flesh will be aligned before his face, for through the instruction comes the full knowing of falling short.THE THREAD
But we have seen that the instruction is good, if one handles it in keeping with its instruction.The repeated νόμος (nomos, instruction) joins these lines: the law is called good when it is used lawfully. The next verse names the conduct its instruction addresses.
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