What Does 2 Peter 3:1 Mean in the King James?
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
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 verse presents clarity as an awakening: remembrance brings what has been received back into active attention.
THE MEANING
You are met as someone whose mind can be stirred awake by remembrance. What you have received returns to active awareness, so clarity emerges through recall rather than novelty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that clarity always requires something entirely new; the verse locates renewal in remembering what has already been received.
THE ROOT
διεγείρω
diegeirō
GROWS FROM
ἐγερ-
eger-
To wake, rouse, or raise.
“stir up” in this verse is diegeirō. διεγείρω is built on ἐγείρω, “to wake or raise,” and pictures the mind being roused into alertness. Remembrance does not replace the mind’s contents here; it awakens attention to what is already there.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: To wake, awaken, or raise.
ἐγείρω
This is the base verb within “stir up,” revealing that the verse describes remembrance as waking the mind.
egersis: Rising or resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This related form carries awakening into the image of rising, giving “stir up” a sense of renewed movement.
ὑπόμνησις
hypomnēsis
GROWS FROM
μνη-
mnē-
Remembering, recalling, or keeping in mind.
ὑπόμνησις means a reminder or recollection and belongs to the Greek family of words for remembering. Paired with ἐγείρω, remembrance becomes the means by which the mind is awakened to what it has received.
ALSO GROWS
hypomimnēskō: To remind or bring to remembrance.
ὑπομιμνῄσκω
This verb makes the active movement explicit: something remembered is brought back before the mind.
anamnēsis: Remembrance or recollection.
ἀνάμνησις
This related noun shows the same memory-root at work as a return of what is known to present awareness.
THE PATTERN
Remembering what has been received returns it to active attention.
I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.THE THREAD
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.The same Greek root, ἐγείρω (egeirō), appears in “Awake thou that sleepest.” In both verses, awakening describes what brings what is dormant into present awareness.
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