What Does 2 Corinthians 4:12 Mean in the King James?
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
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
A life can be where death is endured and the channel through which another receives life.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two realities together now: death is active in us, and life is present in you. The cost borne by one can be the place through which life reaches another. Death remains real in the sentence; it does not cancel the life also present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that death’s presence means life has vanished from the whole scene: the verse names death in us and life in you at once.
THE ROOT
ἐνεργεῖται
energeitai
GROWS FROM
ἐργ- (erg-), in ἐνεργέω (energeō)
Work, deed, or action put into operation.
“worketh” in this verse is energeitai. The Greek verb means to be at work or operating within; death is not just mentioned as an outcome but shown acting in us. English can make death sound like a distant endpoint, while this verb gives it an active presence in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
ergon: Work, deed, or action.
ἔργον
This noun shares the verb’s seed: what is at work in us has an effect, not just a name.
energeia: Working, operation, or activity.
ἐνέργεια
This related noun makes the verb’s sense of an activity taking effect especially clear.
ergazomai: To work or do.
ἐργάζομαι
The same family describes action in progress, fitting the verse’s picture of death actively at work.
θάνατος
thanatos
GROWS FROM
θαν-
than-
To die; death.
The Greek family extends from death itself to dying and mortality. With death as the subject of the work-verb, mortality is not only a finish line here; it is an active condition within us.
ALSO GROWS
thnēskō: To die.
θνῄσκω
The verb gives the process behind the noun: death includes the act of dying.
thnētos: Mortal.
θνητός
This branch names the condition of being subject to death, a condition present in the verse’s ‘us.’
thanatoō: To put to death.
θανατόω
The family also includes the act that brings death about, keeping death’s active edge visible.
ζωή
zōē
GROWS FROM
ζω-
zō-
To live; living.
The verse sets ζωή, life, beside θάνατος, death, and places them in different people: in us and in you. They are not separated into different eras; the sentence holds both realities in the same present.
ALSO GROWS
zaō: To live or be alive.
ζάω
The verb shows the living activity carried by the noun ‘life.’
zōopoieō: To make alive or give life.
ζωοποιέω
This compound extends the same life-family into the act of bringing life to another.
zōon: A living being or creature.
ζῷον
The family can name life as something embodied in a living being, matching the verse’s ‘in you.’
THE PATTERN
In these texts, death borne in one life becomes the means through which life reaches others.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.THE THREAD
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.Philippians 2:13 uses the same Greek verb family, ἐνεργέω (energeō, to work or operate), when it says God works in you. Here death is the stated subject at work in one group while life is present in another; Philippians makes the inner activity of that verb unmistakable.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us