What Does 1 Peter 2:2 Mean in the King James?
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
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
The nourishment that grows you is described as guileless: its purity is marked by the absence of deceit.
THE MEANING
You are pictured as a newborn whose hunger turns toward unadulterated nourishment. The word’s milk is free of guile, and through receiving it you grow. Dependence here is not the opposite of maturity; it is where growth begins.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that needing nourishment proves you are immature. Here, hunger and dependence are the very posture from which growth comes.
THE ROOT
ἄδολον
adolon
GROWS FROM
δόλος (dolos), the base noun within ἄδολος (adolos)
Bait, guile, or deceit; ἄδολος means free from guile, unadulterated.
“sincere” in this verse is adolon. The preceding verse names guile as something laid aside; this verse describes the milk as free from that same guile. The passage links what is removed with what can nourish: deceit falls away, and guileless milk is received.
ALSO GROWS
dolos: Guile, deceit; also a snare or bait
δόλος
The preceding verse names “guile” as something laid aside, while ἄδολος describes milk without it.
doloō: To deceive or handle deceitfully
δολόω
This verb carries the same root into the act of deception, clarifying what the milk in this verse is free from.
αὐξηθῆτε
auxēthēte
GROWS FROM
αὐξ- (aux-), the Greek growth stem of αὐξάνω (auxanō)
To grow or increase.
“grow” in this verse is auxēthēte. The growth verb ties milk directly to increase: what is received becomes the means of growth. The same Greek stem appears in 2 Peter 3:18, where growth continues in favor and knowledge.
ALSO GROWS
auxanō: To grow or increase
αὐξάνω
This is the verb’s base form and carries the same idea of increase found in “grow thereby.”
auxēsis: Growth or increase
αὔξησις
This noun uses the same stem for increase, as in the growth nourished by God in Colossians 2:19.
THE PATTERN
Life increases through nourishment received; growth is the fruit of what reaches and feeds it.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.THE THREAD
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.The same Greek verb, αὐξάνω (auxanō), governs “grow” here and in 1 Peter 2:2. There, nourishment is the means of growth; here, growth continues in favor and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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