What Does Ephesians 2:21 Mean in the King James?
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
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
What sounds like construction is a living thing: the joined building grows into a dwelling for God.
THE MEANING
In Christ, you are part of a whole whose members are joined and whose life is still growing into a dwelling for God. Your place in that whole is not incidental: the sanctuary takes shape as the connected structure grows.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that sacred life is a private achievement: here, God’s dwelling grows as people are joined together in Christ.
THE ROOT
συναρμολογουμένη
synarmologoumenē
GROWS FROM
ἁρμ-
Joining or fitting parts together into an articulated whole.
“fitly framed together” in this verse is synarmologoumenē. The word holds two levels together: each member has a place, and those places interlock into one structure. The growing sanctuary is not a collection of separate parts; its life is in their connection.
ALSO GROWS
harmos: A joint where parts meet.
ἁρμός
The shared root idea points to a real connection between members, not a vague togetherness.
harmonia: An ordered arrangement in which parts fit together.
ἁρμονία
The same fitting idea helps show how distinct parts can form one whole.
αὔξει
auxei
GROWS FROM
αὐξ-
To grow or increase.
“groweth” in this verse is auxei. The structure is described as actively growing toward its sanctuary form. Its becoming is living and ongoing, not the completion of a monument before its members arrive.
ALSO GROWS
auxanō: To grow or cause to grow.
αὐξάνω
This verb names the ongoing increase expressed by “groweth.”
auxēsis: Growth or increase as a process.
αὔξησις
It makes clear that growth is a process the structure undergoes as it becomes a dwelling.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling takes shape among people as they are formed into a living whole.
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.The same Greek joining word appears here for the body being fitly joined together, and the body grows as each part contributes. It reveals that the sanctuary’s growth happens through the connections between its members.
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