What Does 2 Thessalonians 1:9 Mean in the King James?
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
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 makes destruction relational: its sharpest edge is distance from the Lord’s presence and the weight of his power.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the reader now with a severe warning: destruction is bound to being away from the Lord’s presence and the weight of his power. The ruin has the horizon of the ages, and the verse leaves its severity exposed.
THE ROOT
ὄλεθρον
olethron
GROWS FROM
ὄλλυμι
ollymi
To destroy, perish, or be ruined.
The root family links ruin with perishing and being lost. That shared seed lets “destruction” carry the sense of being lost, while the verse locates the ruin in distance from the Lord’s presence and power.
ALSO GROWS
apollymi: Perish, be lost, lose the way, or destroy.
ἀπόλλυμι
This related form shows how the same family can describe both ruin and what is lost.
apōleia: Ruin or destruction.
ἀπώλεια
This noun carries the same ruin-language into other passages, making the verse’s word part of a recurring vocabulary of loss.
αἰώνιον
aiōnion
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age, era, or course of time.
“everlasting” in this verse is aiōnion. The form carries the root’s age-language into this warning, setting the destruction within the horizon of the age or ages. Time and separation work together: the ruin has an age-scale, while “from the presence” names its setting.
ALSO GROWS
aiōnes: Ages.
αἰῶνες
The plural makes the root’s age-language explicit and shows its reach across more than one age.
aiōnios: Of an age; age-long.
αἰώνιος
This related form shares the verse’s temporal horizon, tying its duration to the language of the ages.
δόξης
doxēs
GROWS FROM
δοξ-
dox-
Weight, honor, and splendor: the gravity and esteem carried by someone or something.
“glory” in this verse is doxēs. The word carries weight, honor, and splendor; joined to power, it gives the clause a sense of divine force with gravity. The destruction is described as away from that weight, making separation the verse’s sharp edge.
ALSO GROWS
doxazō: To honor, glorify, or treat as weighty.
δοξάζω
The verb makes explicit the response to what carries honor and weight.
endoxos: Honored, weighty, or splendid.
ἔνδοξος
This adjective applies the same family to someone or something whose presence carries visible honor and weight.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes distance from the Lord’s presence a defining form of ruin.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:THE THREAD
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.The same Greek family, ὄλεθρος (olethros, ruin or destruction), appears here for the sudden ruin that follows the claim of “peace and safety.” In this verse, that ruin is joined to distance from the Lord’s presence and the weight of his power.
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