What Does 2 Corinthians 5:2 Mean in the King James?
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
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 heavenly house is something the speaker longs to put on: home is pictured as a covering from heaven.
THE MEANING
Your groaning lives beside a longing to be clothed with a dwelling that comes from heaven. The verse gives that longing a bodily shape: completion is pictured as receiving a heavenly covering where life feels burdened.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that your body’s groaning means embodiment is a mistake; it pictures completion as being clothed with a dwelling from heaven.
THE ROOT
ἐπενδύσασθαι
ependy sasthai
GROWS FROM
ἐνδύω
endyō
To put on clothing; in this verse, the prefix ἐπί (epi, over or upon) gives the compound the sense of putting something on over.
“clothed upon” in this verse is ependy sasthai. The verb makes the heavenly dwelling something the speaker longs to wear. The hope is pictured as a covering received by the body, not merely a destination to reach.
ALSO GROWS
endyō: To put on clothing
ἐνδύω
The same verb family appears in the image of putting on incorruption in 1 Corinthians 15:53, linking clothing with bodily transformation.
endyma: A garment or clothing
ἔνδυμα
This related noun makes the clothing image concrete: what comes from heaven covers the person.
οἰκητήριον
oikētērion
GROWS FROM
οἰκ-
oik-
The word-family of a house, household, or place of dwelling.
“house” in this verse is oikētērion. The Greek word names a dwelling place, and the verse makes that dwelling what the speaker longs to put on. Home and clothing converge in the image: the dwelling from heaven clothes the person.
ALSO GROWS
oikos: A house or household
οἶκος
This familiar branch makes the shared house-word visible beneath the image of a heavenly dwelling.
oikeō: To dwell or inhabit
οἰκέω
This branch emphasizes inhabiting: the hope concerns a dwelling that belongs with the person.
THE PATTERN
Human groaning reaches toward God’s life as a covering that completes embodied life.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.THE THREAD
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.Both verses use the Greek house-word family, οἰκ- (oik-, house or dwelling). The first verse names a dwelling from God; this one shows why the next verse can picture that heavenly dwelling as something to put on.
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