What Does 1 John 5:19 Mean in the King James?
And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
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
Belonging to God and the condition of the world are two different realities: you are from God while the whole world’s order lies in evil.
THE MEANING
You are from God, while the whole world lies in wickedness. The verb pictures the world as situated in evil, and the word rendered “wickedness” can also name “the evil one,” as the next verse shows. Both realities stand together now: your source is God, while the surrounding world remains in evil.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The world’s dominant condition does not prove that you belong to it, and being of God does not mean the whole world is already aligned with God.
THE ROOT
κόσμος
kosmos
GROWS FROM
κοσμ-
kosm-
To arrange, order, or adorn.
Kosmos names the world and its arrangement. The verse can describe the whole human order as lying inside evil, while “of God” names a different source for you.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: Arrange, adorn.
κοσμέω
This related verb makes the sense of an ordered arrangement audible in “world.”
kosmios: Orderly, respectable.
κόσμιος
This related adjective carries the sense of order into a description of conduct.
κεῖται
keitai
GROWS FROM
κεῖμαι
keimai
To lie, be laid, or be situated.
“lieth” in this verse is keitai. The verb pictures the world as lying or being situated in evil. It names a condition the world occupies, not merely a series of separate wrong acts.
ALSO GROWS
anakeimai: Recline, often at a table.
ἀνάκειμαι
This compound uses the same root for a body lying back in a particular position.
apokeimai: Be laid up or reserved.
ἀπόκειμαι
This compound likewise describes something as set in a place or state.
πονηρῷ
ponērō
GROWS FROM
πονηρ-
ponēr-
Evil, harmful, or wicked.
This word can refer to evil as a condition or to the evil one as a personal adversary. In the preceding verse, the same word names “that wicked one,” so “wickedness” here does not exhaust what the line may hold.
ALSO GROWS
ponēros: Evil, wicked; also “the evil one” when used as a title.
πονηρός
The same word appears in the preceding verse for the adversary who does not touch the one born of God.
ponēria: Evil, wickedness.
πονηρία
This related noun shows how the same word family can name evil as a condition.
THE PATTERN
A person’s belonging can come from God even while the wider order around them remains under evil.
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.THE THREAD
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.The phrase “that wicked one” uses πονηρός (ponēros, evil or wicked), the same word family rendered “wickedness” here. That echo lets the line hold both evil as the world’s condition and the evil one as an active adversary.
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