What Does 2 Corinthians 5:3 Mean in the King James?
If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
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 Greek pictures clothing as something you put on, so the verse’s hope is not to escape the body but not to be left exposed.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a condition and an assurance together: if you are clothed, nakedness is not what will be found in you. The next verse makes the image plain: what is hoped for is being clothed upon, so mortality is swallowed up by life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that bodily vulnerability makes embodiment a failure and escape from the body the only hope.
THE ROOT
ἐνδυσάμενοι
endysámenoi
GROWS FROM
δύω (dyō), with ἐν- (en-, “in”)
δύω means to enter or go into; ἐνδύω means to put on clothing.
“clothed” in this verse is endysámenoi. The Greek verb presents clothing as an action: putting something on, rather than merely possessing a garment. Its related opposite, ἐκδύω (ekdyō), means to strip off; the contrast reveals the verse’s concern with whether you are covered or left exposed.
ALSO GROWS
endyō: Put on; clothe.
ἐνδύω
This is the verb behind “being clothed” here, making the image an act of being covered.
ekdyō: Strip off; unclothe.
ἐκδύω
This related verb uses the same core with ἐκ- (“out”), showing the opposite movement: removing what covers.
THE PATTERN
Life’s completion is pictured as being clothed in what covers exposure and overcomes mortality.
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.For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.THE THREAD
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.“Being clothed” here and “put on” in Ephesians use the same Greek verb, ἐνδύω (endyō), to put on or clothe. There, what is put on is the new man; here, the image is a covering that keeps you from being found exposed.
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