What Does 2 Corinthians 13:12 Mean in the King James?
Greet one another with an holy kiss.
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 kiss is holy because affection itself becomes the form of welcome.
THE MEANING
Welcome takes a bodily form: one person receives another through shared affection, and that affection is set apart. Holiness here lives between people, joined to human warmth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is set apart for God must be emotionally distant: here the holy greeting is a kiss.
THE ROOT
φίλημα
phílēma
GROWS FROM
φιλέω
phileō
to love or show affection
The word for kiss belongs to the family of affection, so this is not a neutral greeting decorated by holiness. The affection is carried in the gesture itself.
ALSO GROWS
phileō: to love or show affection
φιλέω
The verb shares the word-family that gives the kiss its affectionate character.
philos: friend or dear one
φίλος
This related form shows the same affection extending into personal bonds.
philadelphia: brotherly love
φιλαδελφία
The affection in the kiss belongs in a community of care, not only in private intimacy.
ἅγιος
hágios
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
set apart, sacred
The word for holy belongs to a family that also names setting apart and consecration. Joined to an affectionate kiss, the set-apart quality belongs to the welcome itself; sacredness and bodily warmth are held together.
ALSO GROWS
hagiázō: to set apart or make holy
ἁγιάζω
The verb shows the same family expressing the act of setting apart.
hagiasmós: consecration or sanctification
ἁγιασμός
This related noun connects holiness with a state of being set apart.
THE PATTERN
Welcome and honor become visible when affection takes an embodied form.
And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things.Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.THE THREAD
Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.Peter uses the same Greek noun for an affectionate kiss, here paired with “charity”; Paul pairs it with “holy.” Together the verses show affection as the embodied expression of a set-apart community.
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