What Does 1 Thessalonians 5:27 Mean in the King James?
I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
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
Reading is a form of shared knowing, and this verse insists that no sibling be left outside it.
THE MEANING
This message is meant to reach you as part of a whole, not remain private. It is read across the community of set-apart siblings, so its words can be received together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that sacred instruction belongs only to a select few: the verse directs it to all the set-apart siblings.
THE ROOT
ἀναγνωσθῆναι
anagnōsthēnai
GROWS FROM
γνω-
gnō-
To know or recognize; the verb for reading is formed from this knowing root.
The Greek word for “read” is ἀναγινώσκω (anaginōskō), a word built on knowing and recognizing. The verse presents reading as shared recognition: what one person reads becomes available for the whole community to know.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: To know or perceive.
γινώσκω
This related verb makes the knowing inside “read” visible: the letter is meant to be understood by the community.
anagnōsis: Reading or public reading.
ἀνάγνωσις
This noun from the same word family names the act the verse entrusts to the whole group.
ἀδελφούς
adelphous
GROWS FROM
δελφύς
delphys
Womb; ἀδελφός (adelphos) is traditionally understood as one born from the same womb.
“Brethren” carries a kinship image beneath the English word: these hearers are named as siblings. The instruction reaches the whole set-apart family, not isolated individuals.
ALSO GROWS
adelphē: A female sibling.
ἀδελφή
The same family word applies across the community, making its shared kinship broader than “brethren” may sound in English.
adelphotēs: A community or kinship of siblings.
ἀδελφότης
This related noun names the collective bond implied when the message is read to all the siblings.
ἐνορκίζω
enorkizō
GROWS FROM
ὁρκ-
hork-
An oath; to place someone under solemn obligation.
The charge is an adjuration, not a casual request: the reading is bound to the Lord. That weight sits beside the wide reach of “all”, solemnly entrusted, yet meant for the whole community.
ALSO GROWS
horkos: A solemn oath or sworn obligation.
ὅρκος
This noun reveals the oath-weight carried by the verb translated “charge.”
horkizō: To require solemnly under oath.
ὁρκίζω
This related verb makes the force of the instruction clear: the reading is treated as an obligation under the Lord.
THE PATTERN
Instruction is entrusted to the whole community through shared reading and hearing.
When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.THE THREAD
And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.Colossians uses the same Greek verb, ἀναγινώσκω (anaginōskō, read or recognize), for reading the letter among one assembly and then another. The shared root opens this charge as a common act of recognition: the message is meant to move through the whole community.
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