What Does Colossians 2:11 Mean in the King James?
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
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 verse’s own explanation turns circumcision from a bodily mark into a stripping away done “without hands” in Christ.
THE MEANING
In Christ, you are described as circumcised by an act made without human hands. The fleshly body and its missings are put off; the verse frames this change as removal rather than an achievement added by human effort. Its language locates the decisive act in Christ.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a human-made bodily sign accomplishes the decisive change: the verse locates that change in Christ and calls it a putting off “without hands.”
THE ROOT
ἀπέκδυσις
apekdysis
GROWS FROM
ἐκδύω (ekdyō; ἐκδυ-)
To take off or strip away, especially clothing.
“putting off” in this verse is apekdysis. This word pictures something being stripped away, not a generic change. Its word family also describes putting clothing on, so the verse’s choice emphasizes what is shed: the fleshly body with its missings.
ALSO GROWS
ekdyō: To take off clothing; to strip.
ἐκδύω
This verb supplies the clothing-removal image behind “putting off.”
endyō: To put on clothing; to clothe.
ἐνδύω
It shares the verbal base but turns the action toward clothing oneself, highlighting that this verse specifically describes removal.
apekdyomai: To strip off; to disarm.
ἀπεκδύομαι
This related form appears in Colossians 2:15, connecting the passage’s stripping language with Christ’s action there.
περιτομή
peritomē
GROWS FROM
τεμ- (tem-), from τέμνω (temnō)
To cut or divide.
The word’s parts carry the sense of “cut around.” Beside the word for stripping off, it presents circumcision through the language of removal, while “without hands” locates the decisive act beyond human craft.
ALSO GROWS
peritemnō: To cut around; to circumcise.
περιτέμνω
This verb makes the “cut around” structure of circumcision visible.
tomē: A cutting or incision.
τομή
This related noun keeps the basic image of cutting present beneath the English word “circumcision.”
ἁμαρτιῶν
hamartiōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss or fail to reach the mark.
The verse’s “sins” carries the sense of missings, and describes them as what is put off from the fleshly body. This frames them as something shed, not the reader’s unchangeable name.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb shows the action carried by the same word family as the verse’s “sins.”
hamartēma: An error; a missing.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun presents a specific instance of missing, matching the verse’s image of what is put off.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures decisive inward change as circumcision of the heart, accomplished by God beyond visible human marks.
And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.THE THREAD
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;Colossians 3:9 uses the same verb family for “put off” as the “putting off” in this verse. The shared word connects inward circumcision with shedding the old human pattern and its deeds.
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