What Does 1 John 2:2 Mean in the King James?

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:2 · KJV
The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

The one who meets your missing reaches beyond your own circle to the whole world.

Your missing is met in him: he is the one through whom it is dealt with. That reach extends beyond your own record or community to the whole world.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Your missing puts you beyond the reach of God’s dealing.

ἱλασμός

hilasmos

GROWS FROM

ἱλασκ-

hilask- word family

To deal with an offense through expiation or to make a relationship favorable again.

This Greek word family connects the act of dealing with offense to the mercy seat, where that dealing is pictured. Here, the one who is himself the propitiation is not an abstract mechanism: the person is where the missing is met.

ALSO GROWS

hilaskomai: To show mercy or make propitiation.

ἱλάσκομαι

This related verb shows the family at work as an act of mercy toward the one who has missed.

hilastērion: Propitiatory means or place; mercy seat.

ἱλαστήριον

This related word links the dealing with offense to a place of encounter, opening up the verse’s claim that he himself is the propitiation.

ἁμαρτία

hamartia

GROWS FROM

ἁμαρτ-

hamart- word family

Missing, erring, or failing to reach the mark.

“sins” in this verse is hamartia. The plural names actual misses, not a permanent identity. The verse says these misses are what he meets, and the scope of that dealing includes the whole world.

ALSO GROWS

hamartanō: To miss, err, or do wrong.

ἁμαρτάνω

The verb makes the movement in the root visible: a person misses, and this verse speaks of what meets that missing.

hamartēma: A wrong act or offense.

ἁμάρτημα

This related noun shows the family can name particular acts, keeping the verse’s concern concrete.

κόσμος

kosmos

GROWS FROM

κοσμ-

kosm- word family

An ordered whole; the world or the human order within it.

Kosmos can name the world as an ordered whole or the people within it. Joined with “whole,” it carries the reach of this verse past one private case or favored circle.

ALSO GROWS

kosmeō: To arrange or adorn.

κοσμέω

This related verb preserves the sense of arrangement within the word family, giving “world” a scale wider than a collection of separate cases.

kosmios: Orderly or well arranged.

κόσμιος

This related adjective echoes the order within kosmos, while “whole world” makes the verse’s scope collective.

God’s dealing with human missing brings cleansing and reaches beyond any one person’s circle.

For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
Leviticus 16:30 · KJVThe verse joins the dealing with sin to cleansing from all of it.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
John 1:29 · KJVThe removal of sin reaches beyond individuals to the world.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10 · KJVGod’s love takes the initiative in the same dealing with sin.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10 · KJV

John uses the same Greek word, hilasmos, in both verses. Here he shows its source in God’s love: the one who meets the missing is sent by the one who loves.

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