What Does 2 Thessalonians 2:12 Mean in the King James?
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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
What you refuse to trust is exposed by what you are willing to approve.
THE MEANING
This verse names a present pairing: truth is refused, and injustice is welcomed. The judgment it announces answers that pairing directly, exposing what is refused and what is approved.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refusing truth is neutral: approval still fastens somewhere, here on injustice.
THE ROOT
εὐδοκήσαντες
eudokēsantes
GROWS FROM
δοκ-
dok-
To think or regard; in this word, to regard favorably, approve, or be pleased with.
“had pleasure” in this verse is eudokēsantes. “Pleasure” can sound like a private feeling, but this verb carries approval: injustice is welcomed as something good. The verse describes not only refusing truth, but consenting to what opposes it.
ALSO GROWS
eudokia: Good pleasure, favor, approval.
εὐδοκία
It shows how this word family gives pleasure the force of favorable regard.
syneudokeō: Approve together, consent.
συνευδοκέω
This related verb makes explicit the consent that can lie inside taking pleasure in something.
ἀδικίᾳ
adikia
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Justice and what is right; the shared stem points to what is aligned with justice.
“unrighteousness” in this verse is adikia. The Greek word names injustice and wrongdoing, bringing the verse’s contrast into view: truth is refused while what is out of alignment is welcomed. The English word can make this sound like a vague moral lack, but the root family keeps justice in the picture.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: Justice, right, or what is due.
δίκη
It reveals justice beneath the word for injustice.
dikaiosynē: Righteousness; alignment.
δικαιοσύνη
Its shared stem connects unrighteousness with what has moved out of alignment.
πιστεύσαντες
pisteusantes
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust and reliability; to trust or lean one’s full weight on.
“Believed not” can sound like a failure to accept information, but this word family speaks of trust. The verse sets withheld trust in truth beside active approval of injustice.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust; leaning one’s full weight on.
πίστις
It names the trust carried by the verb translated “believed.”
pistos: Firm, steady, trustworthy.
πιστός
It shows how the same word family connects trust with steadiness and reliability.
THE PATTERN
Judgment exposes the choice to refuse truth while welcoming what opposes it.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.THE THREAD
But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,Romans 2:8 pairs the same words for truth and unrighteousness, then describes a person obeying one or the other. That sharpens the contrast here: trust does not vanish in a vacuum; approval turns toward what stands against alignment.
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