What Does Colossians 1:20 Mean in the King James?
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
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 peace here is wholeness made as all things are reconciled to himself through the blood of the cross.
THE MEANING
Christ is reconciling all things to himself, and you are within that reach; its scope extends beyond any one person to everything in earth and heaven. The peace being made is wholeness, not simply a calm feeling. The verse names its means starkly: the blood of his cross.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that peace is only the absence of conflict: here peace is made through the cross as all things are reconciled.
THE ROOT
ἀποκαταλλάξαι
apokatallaxai
GROWS FROM
ἀλλάσσω
allassō
To change, alter, or exchange.
“reconcile” in this verse is apokatallaxai. The Greek word family carries change beneath the sense of reconciliation. Here that change is relational: what is estranged is brought into a new relation, and the reach of that reconciliation is all things in earth and heaven.
ALSO GROWS
allassō: To change, alter, or exchange.
ἀλλάσσω
This is the root whose seed remains audible beneath the verse’s word for reconciliation.
katallassō: To reconcile or restore a relationship.
καταλλάσσω
This related form shows the same root applied to estrangement being brought into relation.
εἰρηνοποιήσας
eirēnopoiesas
GROWS FROM
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
Peace, wholeness.
“having made peace” in this verse is eirēnopoiesas. The phrase is built from the word for peace as an action: peace is being made, not merely felt. Its wholeness reaches all things, and the verse names the blood of the cross as its means.
ALSO GROWS
eirēnopoieō: To make peace.
εἰρηνοποιέω
This verb family makes peace something accomplished, matching the verse’s description of reconciliation.
eirēnopoios: Peacemaker.
εἰρηνοποιός
The related word names one who makes peace, echoing the active work described here.
THE PATTERN
Scripture locates peace in the costly repair of what is broken, with reconciliation reaching across enmity.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:THE THREAD
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:Ephesians uses the same Greek root ἀλλάσσω (allassō, “change or exchange”) in its word for reconcile, and names the cross as the means of bringing estranged groups into one body. Colossians opens that same movement to all things in earth and heaven, showing reconciliation at the scale of the whole creation.
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