What Does Ephesians 5:18 Mean in the King James?
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
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 alternative to being filled with wine is being filled with breath, because “Spirit” here is pneuma, the same word for breath and wind.
THE MEANING
Wine can fill you in a way that spills into excess; this verse names another fullness, the breath of God filling you. What English separates as spirit, wind, and breath is one Greek word, giving this fullness a living, animating image.
THE ROOT
πνεύματι
pneumati
GROWS FROM
πνέω
pneō
To breathe or blow.
The word translated “Spirit” is pneuma, from pneō: breath or wind. English divides these into separate ideas, while the Greek lets the verse speak of being filled with breath itself.
ALSO GROWS
pneuma: Breath, wind, or spirit.
πνεῦμα
This is the word in the verse: its several English renderings share one Greek image.
pnoē: Breath or blast of wind.
πνοή
This related word appears in Acts 2:2, where the KJV renders it “wind,” linking breath and filling in a strikingly similar image.
πληροῦσθε
plērousthe
GROWS FROM
πληρόω
plēroō
To fill, make full, or bring to fullness.
“filled” in this verse is plērousthe. The verse sets one filling against another: wine fills toward excess, while this fullness is associated with the breath. The shared language of fullness makes the contrast about what occupies and moves a person.
ALSO GROWS
plērēs: Full or filled.
πλήρης
This cognate describes a state of fullness, clarifying that the verse speaks of being filled through and through.
plērōma: Fullness or that which fills.
πλήρωμα
It carries the same fullness language into a noun, reinforcing that the verse contrasts what fills a person.
THE PATTERN
What fills a person becomes evident in what flows out of them.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.THE THREAD
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.Acts 2:2 uses pnoē, a word related to pneuma through pneō, for the “wind”; it also uses the same verb for “filled” as Ephesians 5:18. Where English gives you wind and Spirit, the Greek joins breath and filling in both verses.
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