What Does 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Mean in the King James?
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
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 word translated “tradition” means a handing over: what is passed on becomes visible in the way a person walks.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you inside a community whose shared teaching has a recognizable shape in how people walk. Its command to withdraw sits beside the word brother: kinship remains named, while distance is commanded when conduct breaks from the received pattern. Spoken in the nature of the Lord Jesus, the command binds its authority to that pattern.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that shared brotherhood requires unbroken closeness regardless of conduct.
THE ROOT
παράδοσιν
parádosin
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
give; hand over
Παράδοσις (parádosis, tradition) comes from παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi, hand over or deliver). The verse places a handed-over teaching beside a way of walking: what is received takes shape in conduct.
ALSO GROWS
paradídōmi: hand over; deliver
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “tradition,” making the teaching itself a handover from one person to another.
metadídōmi: share; impart
μεταδίδωμι
This compound shows the same giving root passing something onward for others to receive.
apodídōmi: give back; render
ἀποδίδωμι
The same root can describe what is rendered in return, illuminating how a received way carries consequences into a person’s conduct.
ἀτάκτως
ataktōs
GROWS FROM
τάσσω
arrange; assign; set in order
In ἀτάκτως (ataktōs, disorderly), the negative prefix marks a walk outside what has been arranged or assigned. The word describes a way of moving through shared life, giving “walketh disorderly” a pattern of conduct rather than a passing disagreement.
ALSO GROWS
táxis: arrangement; order
τάξις
This noun from the same family makes the order absent from ἀτάκτως visible.
átaktos: out of order; undisciplined
ἄτακτος
This is the adjective underlying the verse’s adverb and carries the same sense of being outside the arrangement.
syntássō: arrange together; draw up
συντάσσω
This compound shows the root at work in bringing things into an ordered whole.
στέλλεσθαι
stellesthai
GROWS FROM
στέλλω
prepare; set in order; in the middle voice, draw back or keep away
The middle form στέλλεσθαι (stellesthai, withdraw yourselves) describes taking oneself back from someone. Its root also appears in words for sending and drawing together, so the verse’s boundary is an enacted withdrawal from shared company.
ALSO GROWS
apostéllō: send away; dispatch
ἀποστέλλω
This compound keeps the root’s sense of movement away from a point, clarifying the force of withdrawal.
systéllō: draw together; contract; restrain
συστέλλω
This branch shows the root’s other movement: drawing inward or holding back.
epistéllō: send word; write instructions
ἐπιστέλλω
Here the root carries something outward as a message, contrasting with the middle form’s drawing oneself back.
THE PATTERN
A received way becomes visible in conduct, and departure from it redraws the boundaries of shared life.
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:THE THREAD
For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.The same Greek adverb ἀτάκτως (ataktōs, disorderly) appears here and names the walk through its concrete pattern. The verse connects that pattern with refusing work and meddling in others’ affairs.
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