What Does 2 Thessalonians 3:17 Mean in the King James?

The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.

2 Thessalonians 3:17 · KJV

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 handwritten greeting is an identifying mark: the message carries its sender’s own hand within it.

THE MEANING

The greeting is written in Paul’s own hand, and the verse names that handwriting as the sign found in every letter. The message carries the recognizable trace of its sender within the words themselves.

THE ROOT

χείρ

cheir

GROWS FROM

χειρ-

cheir-

hand; the bodily means of acting or making

The verse’s sign is made by a hand, so the mark points back to a person who acted. The handwriting carries the sender’s presence inside the letter.

ALSO GROWS

cheirographon: a document written by hand

χειρόγραφον

This compound joins hand and writing, making clear how a hand can leave an identifying trace in a text.

cheiropoiētos: made or fashioned by human hands

χειροποίητος

The hand can identify the agent behind what is made, as Paul’s own hand identifies the sender behind the letter.

σημεῖον

sēmeion

GROWS FROM

σημ-

sēm-

a sign, mark, or indication

“token” in this verse is sēmeion. The Greek word names a mark that points beyond itself. Here, Paul’s handwriting is the sign that identifies who sends the letter.

ALSO GROWS

sēmainō: to signal or make something known

σημαίνω

This branch shows a sign working by pointing to what it reveals: the handwriting identifies the sender.

sēmeioō: to mark or designate

σημειόω

The related verb appears in 2 Thessalonians 3:14, where readers are told to mark someone; here the mark is a recurring sign within the letters.

γράφω

graphō

GROWS FROM

γραφ-

graph-

to write, inscribe, or draw

“write” in this verse is graphō. The act of writing leaves a visible form behind; the hand and the message meet in that inscription. The same word family can describe both a letter on a page and something written into a person.

ALSO GROWS

graphē: a writing or written text

γραφή

The written text endures beyond the moment of the writer’s hand, carrying the message forward.

gramma: a written sign or letter

γράμμα

A letter is both a piece of writing and a character on the page, joining the individual mark to the larger message.

THE PATTERN

A written message can bear the writer’s hand as a mark of identity and witness.

The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.

1 Corinthians 16:21 · KJVPaul’s own hand makes the greeting a recognizable mark within the letter.

Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.

Galatians 6:11 · KJVThe writing itself draws attention to the hand that leaves its mark on the message.

And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.

Jeremiah 32:10 · KJVThe subscribed and sealed document bears a written mark that stands with witnesses as evidence.

THE THREAD

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

2 Corinthians 3:3 · KJV

Both verses share ⁨γράφω⁩ (graphō, write or inscribe): here the handwriting identifies the letter’s sender. There, people themselves are described as a letter written beyond ink, extending the image from a mark on a page to a message carried in lives.

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