What Does 1 Timothy 6:4 Mean in the King James?
He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
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 verse calls fixation on word-battles a sickness whose fruit is envy, rivalry, insult, and suspicion.
THE MEANING
When certainty swells while understanding is empty, attention can become sickly attached to questions and battles over words. From this fixation come envy, conflict, insults, and suspicious interpretations; the verse traces outward discord to an inward preoccupation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that winning verbal disputes proves understanding: here, word-fighting accompanies emptiness and produces a trail of conflict.
THE ROOT
νοσῶν
nosōn
GROWS FROM
νοσ-
nos-
The Greek lexical stem for sickness: to be ill or diseased.
The word rendered “doting” means “being sick.” The verse presents this fixation on disputes as a continuing sickness, and the envy, strife, and suspicion that follow as its outgrowth.
ALSO GROWS
nosos: Disease or sickness.
νόσος
This noun makes the illness image explicit: the verse treats fixation on disputes as a condition with damaging effects.
noseō: To be sick or diseased.
νοσέω
This verb shares the stem and shows that “doting” describes an ongoing state, not a passing interest.
λογομαχίας
logomachias
GROWS FROM
λογο- + μαχ- (logos + mach-)
Word joined to battle: verbal combat or contention over words.
“strifes of words” in this verse is logomachias. The phrase is a single compound, “word-battles.” It turns the focus from inquiry itself to the combative posture around it, where speech becomes a site of conflict rather than understanding.
ALSO GROWS
logos: Word, speech, or account.
λόγος
It identifies what is being contested: words and accounts become the material of the battle.
machē: Battle, fight, or quarrel.
μάχη
This is the conflict hidden inside “strifes”: the verse depicts words being used in a fight.
THE PATTERN
When fixation on disputes replaces understanding, conflict spreads from thought into relationships.
Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,THE THREAD
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,The Greek word for “strife” here, ἔρις (eris), also appears in 1 Timothy 6:4. In Timothy it grows from word-battles; here it sits among other forces that divide, showing the same conflict taking root in shared life.
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