What Does 1 Timothy 1:9 Mean in the King James?
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 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
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 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.
“righteous” in this verse is dikaiō. 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.
“made” in this verse is keitai. 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 law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.THE THREAD
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;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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