What Does Colossians 3:21 Mean in the King James?
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
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 Greek word for “discouraged” means to become without heart, naming what repeated provocation can drain from a child.
THE MEANING
A father’s irritation reaches beyond a moment of anger: it can wear down a child’s courage until they lose heart. The verse names discouragement as something that can grow inside a relationship, not merely a private flaw in the child.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A child’s discouragement is only a defect in their temperament, unrelated to how a parent treats them.
THE ROOT
ἀθυμῶσιν
athymōsin
GROWS FROM
θυμ-
thym-
The inner drive, heart, or courage; with the privative ἀ- in ἀθυμέω, it becomes “without heart,” or disheartened.
“discouraged” in this verse is athymōsin. The word carries more than sadness: it names the loss of the inner courage that lets a person meet what is before them. The sentence links a father’s provocation with a child’s loss of heart, showing discouragement as something that can grow within a relationship.
ALSO GROWS
thymos: Passion, anger, or ardor.
θυμός
The same root can name intense feeling; here its negated form points to the inner force that can be depleted.
euthymeō: Take heart; be cheerful.
εὐθυμέω
This related word shows the other side of the same root: the heart can be encouraged as well as disheartened.
enthumeomai: Consider; ponder.
ἐνθυμέομαι
The root also appears in a word for inward thought, connecting the child’s inner life with the heart named in “discouraged.”
THE PATTERN
The force that stirs another person can inflame them or encourage them; what it awakens matters.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:THE THREAD
For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.Colossians uses ἐρεθίζω (erethizō), “provoke” or “stir up,” for what fathers must not do to their children. The same verb describes zeal stirring many people in 2 Corinthians, revealing that the force of stirring can lead in different directions.
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