What Does Colossians 3:8 Mean in the King James?
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
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 treats anger and harmful speech as removable coverings, with “wrath” naming the heat that rises within them.
THE MEANING
These words address your present life: anger, heat, ill will, slander, and foul speech are named as things you can lay aside. The list moves from inward hostility toward what leaves through the mouth. Their presence is not presented as your fixed nature.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your anger and cruel words define who you are: the verse describes them as removable.
THE ROOT
ἀπόθεσθε
apothesthe
GROWS FROM
τίθημι (tithēmi), with ἀπό (apo, away)
To put or lay aside; the word combines “away” with “place” or “lay.”
“put off” in this verse is apothesthe. The verb makes the listed behaviors things that can be laid aside. The surrounding clothing imagery in this passage frames them as coverings of conduct, not as the reader’s fixed nature.
ALSO GROWS
apothesis: a putting aside or removal
ἀπόθεσις
This noun names the act of setting something aside, echoing the verse’s movement away from these behaviors.
tithēmi: to place, set, or lay
τίθημι
The compound retains the concrete sense of laying something down.
θυμόν
thymon
GROWS FROM
θυμ-
thym-
Heat, anger, an inner surge.
The KJV’s “wrath” is thymos: heat rising within. A related Greek verb can describe considering or pondering, showing this word family reaching into inner movement as well as outward anger.
ALSO GROWS
thumoō: to become angry or provoke anger
θυμόω
The verb gives the same heat an active form.
enthumeomai: to consider or ponder
ἐνθυμέομαι
This related verb brings the inner movement of the word family into thought.
βλασφημίαν
blasphēmian
GROWS FROM
βλασφημ-
blasphēm-
Slanderous or injurious speech.
“blasphemy” in this verse is blasphēmian. Here the word can describe reviling speech, bringing interpersonal attack into view alongside the rest of the list. The verse connects inner ill will with the speech that can carry it outward.
ALSO GROWS
blasphēmeō: to speak injuriously or slander
βλασφημέω
The verb names the act of speaking in the way this noun describes.
blasphēmos: slanderous or defamatory
βλάσφημος
This adjective describes the character of speech that reviles.
THE PATTERN
Destructive conduct is pictured as something that can be laid aside, like a soiled covering.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,THE THREAD
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.The Greek word translated “cast off” belongs to the same ἀπό (apo, away) + τίθημι (tithēmi, place or lay) family as “put off” here. Romans pairs casting off with putting on, making the clothing image explicit and opening the verse’s list as removable conduct.
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