What Does Colossians 2:12 Mean in the King James?

Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Colossians 2:12 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

Immersion holds burial and rising together: you are buried with Christ and raised with him through God’s own working.

Your immersion joins burial and rising: you are buried with Christ and raised with him through trust in God’s working. The power named here belongs to God, the one who raises Jesus from the dead.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that burial is the final state: God’s action raises the one buried with Christ.

βάπτισμα

baptisma

GROWS FROM

βαπτίζω

baptízō

Immerse, dip; the noun names the act of immersion.

“baptism” in this verse is baptisma. The word carries the concrete action of immersion: going down into something. Paired with “buried with him,” it names a descent into Christ’s death that is joined to rising with him.

ALSO GROWS

baptízō: Immerse, dip

βαπτίζω

The verb makes visible the movement held in the word for baptism.

baptismós: Immersion, washing

βαπτισμός

This related form keeps the focus on an act of immersion, echoing the burial named in the verse.

συνηγέρθητε

synegértēte

GROWS FROM

ἐγείρω

egeírō

Raise or awaken, including from death.

“risen” in this verse is synegértēte. The verb is ⁨συνεγείρω⁩, with ⁨σύν⁩ meaning “with” or “together” joined to “raise.” The rising is shared with Christ: the verse speaks of being raised together, not merely of life beginning after burial.

ALSO GROWS

egeírō: Raise, awaken

ἐγείρω

This is the raising action carried inside the verse’s compound verb.

égersis: Rising, resurrection

ἔγερσις

The related noun names the rising that the verse describes as shared with Christ.

God’s raising action carries life through death, bringing the buried into life with him.

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Isaiah 26:19 · KJVThe prophet pictures the dead rising from the dust, showing life emerging where burial seemed to close it.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4 · KJVBurial in baptism and being raised with Christ form one passage from death into newness of life.
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Ephesians 2:6 · KJVThe shared raising with Christ appears again: God raises people together with him.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4 · KJV

Romans uses the same Greek immersion word and the same image of being buried with Christ. Colossians makes the shared rising explicit in its verb; Romans unfolds it as newness of life.

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Colossians 2:12 KJV Meaning