What Does 2 Timothy 3:6 Mean in the King James?
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
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
Desire becomes a captor’s handle when someone already carries a heap of missing.
THE MEANING
The verse depicts deceivers entering private homes and taking vulnerable women captive by working on their varied desires. It speaks now wherever someone exploits people already burdened by missing and turns their longing into a means of control. Its phrase “silly women” is blunt and demeaning; that harshness remains in the text.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that captivity always begins with visible force: here it begins with covert access and proceeds through desire.
THE ROOT
αἰχμαλωτίζοντες
aichmalōtizontes
GROWS FROM
αἰχμαλωτ-
aichmalōt-
To take as a captive, to capture as a prisoner.
“lead captive” in this verse is aichmalōtizontes. This is capture, not mere persuasion. The neighboring phrase “led away” shows how desire can become the route through which that capture is carried out.
ALSO GROWS
aichmalōtos: A captive or prisoner.
αἰχμάλωτος
It names the condition produced by the action of taking someone captive.
aichmalōsia: Captivity.
αἰχμαλωσία
The action opens into a condition of captivity, rather than a passing influence.
ἁμαρτίαις
hamartiais
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss or fail to reach.
“sins” in this verse is hamartiais. The word is plural: these are accumulated missings, not a single abstract label. The KJV’s “laden” also echoes σωρευμένα (sōreumena, heaped up), making the burden a picture of what has gathered over time.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss, fail, or do wrong.
ἁμαρτάνω
It makes the root’s sense of missing visible as an action.
hamartōlos: A sinner; one marked by missing or wrongdoing.
ἁμαρτωλός
It shows the root extending from an act of missing to a person described by that pattern.
ἐπιθυμίαις
epithymiais
GROWS FROM
ἐπιθυμ-
epithym-
Desire or longing directed toward something.
The word names desire itself; the phrase “divers lusts” makes those longings varied and plural. Here they become the channel by which the women are led captive.
ALSO GROWS
epithymeō: To desire or long for.
ἐπιθυμέω
It shows the same word family as a movement of longing.
epithymētēs: One who desires.
ἐπιθυμητής
It carries the same root from the longing itself to the person who longs.
THE PATTERN
Captivity can advance through desire when what entices a person becomes the handle by which another leads them.
With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.THE THREAD
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.Both verses use ἐπιθυμία (epithymia, desire): James shows desire drawing a person away, while this verse shows people being led by many desires. The shared word reveals desire as a path that can lead into captivity.
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