What Does 2 Corinthians 1:18 Mean in the King James?

But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.

2 Corinthians 1:18 · KJV

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 word’s yes stays whole because the God named as its ground is steady.

THE MEANING

The verse sets God’s steadiness beside a word directed toward you that does not split between yes and no. It presents clarity as grounded in a character that does not waver, so the word can be received as one coherent thing.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that the word reaching you is built on contradiction, that a yes can mean no at its foundation.

THE ROOT

πιστός

pistos

GROWS FROM

πιστ-

pist-

Firmness and reliability: the quality of what can be trusted.

“true” in this verse is pistos. The adjective ⁨πιστός⁩ (pistos, firm and reliable) shares its stem with words for trust and trusting. The verse binds the steadiness attributed to God to speech that does not turn into its opposite, joining what can be trusted with the act of trusting.

ALSO GROWS

pistis: trust, reliance

πίστις

Trust rests its weight on something dependable; the verse places God’s steadiness beneath the word spoken toward you.

pisteuō: to trust, rely, or be persuaded

πιστεύω

The act of trusting grows from the same word family as reliability: a steady word gives trust somewhere to rest.

THE PATTERN

Speech grounded in divine reliability holds its course: its yes does not become no.

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Numbers 23:19 · KJVWhat God says holds its course into action, echoing a word that does not divide into yes and no.

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

Psalm 119:89 · KJVThe image of a word settled in heaven echoes speech that does not come loose from itself.

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

James 5:12 · KJVA clear yes and no express the same coherence this verse places beside God’s steadiness.

THE THREAD

God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:9 · KJV

The Greek word translated “true” here, ⁨πιστός⁩ (pistos, firm and reliable), is the same word translated “faithful” in this verse. The shared root makes God’s steadiness the ground beneath the word’s unchanging yes.

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