What Does Colossians 3:12 Mean in the King James?
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
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 passage turns compassion into clothing: what moves in your deepest interior becomes visible in the way you meet the world.
THE MEANING
You are named as chosen, set apart, and beloved now; the virtues follow that belonging. Compassion rises from within and takes visible form as kindness, humility, gentleness, and being slow to heat.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It overturns the belief that tenderness must be earned before you can be beloved: the verse names you beloved before describing the character you wear.
THE ROOT
σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ
splanchna oiktirmou
GROWS FROM
σπλαγχν-
splagchn-
Inward organs, especially the viscera; by extension, the deep inward seat of compassion.
The KJV preserves the bodily image in “bowels of mercies”: compassion is felt deep within, not held at a distance as an abstract virtue. The same word family can describe being moved with compassion, so this inward stirring is also the beginning of an outward response.
ALSO GROWS
splagchnizomai: To be moved with compassion
σπλαγχνίζομαι
Luke uses this related word when compassion moves the Samaritan toward the wounded man.
eusplagchnos: Tenderhearted, compassionate
εὔσπλαγχνος
This related word names the inward quality that Colossians pictures as something you put on.
μακροθυμία
makrothymia
GROWS FROM
μακρο- + θυμός (makro- + thymos)
Long + heat or anger: allowing a long interval before anger rises.
“Longsuffering” can sound like merely enduring pain; the Greek word carries the image of being slow to heat. It makes patience a quality of your response as pressure rises, not a denial that pressure is there.
ALSO GROWS
makrothymeō: To be patient, slow to anger
μακροθυμέω
This verb form carries the same “slow to heat” quality into an action or way of responding.
thymos: Anger, heat, passion
θυμός
This is the heat within the compound, revealing what longsuffering takes time to rise into.
ἐνδύσασθε
endysasthe endyō
GROWS FROM
δύω (dyō), with ἐν- (en-, in/on)
To enter or put on; with the prefix, to clothe oneself.
“put on” in this verse is endysasthe endyō. The virtues are pictured as garments you wear, not qualifications you add to become beloved. The clothing image makes inward character visible in the life you inhabit.
ALSO GROWS
endyma: Garment, clothing
ἔνδυμα
This noun makes explicit the garment image contained in “put on.”
ekdyō: To strip off, take off
ἐκδύω
This related clothing verb appears in the surrounding passage’s image of putting off the old self.
THE PATTERN
What is received as identity becomes visible in the character a person wears and enacts.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,THE THREAD
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,The word rendered “compassion” in Luke comes from the same Greek word family as “bowels” here. Colossians names compassion at its inward source; Luke lets you see it move outward in a concrete response.
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