What Does Galatians 2:18 Mean in the King James?
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
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 moment you rebuild what you dismantled, the work itself names you as the one who crossed the boundary.
THE MEANING
When you reconstruct what you have already pulled down, your own action exposes a contradiction: you restore what you had removed. The verse says that the rebuild itself makes you a transgressor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that rebuilding something you once dismantled is a neutral return; here, the return itself exposes the contradiction.
THE ROOT
κατέλυσα
katelysa
GROWS FROM
καταλύω (kataluō), from κατά (down) + λύω (loosen)
To loosen down, take apart, or dismantle.
The word translated “destroyed” carries the picture of a structure being loosened and brought down. The verse sets that dismantling directly against building again: the old structure returns through the builder’s own action.
ALSO GROWS
lyō: Loosen, untie, or release.
λύω
This root family carries the sense of loosening that lies within the act of dismantling.
apolyō: Release or dismiss.
ἀπολύω
The same λύω family can describe something being released; here the word describes what has been taken apart, then built again.
παραβάτην
parabatēn
GROWS FROM
παραβαίνω (parabainō), from παρά (beside) + βαίνω (step)
To step beside or across; by extension, to overstep.
“Transgressor” pictures someone stepping across a boundary. The verse makes the rebuild the crossing: the person becomes a boundary-crosser through restoring what was dismantled.
ALSO GROWS
bainō: Go or step.
βαίνω
The basic motion is a step; in this verse, that motion becomes an overstep.
parabasis: Transgression or overstepping.
παράβασις
This noun shares the παραβαίνω family and makes the boundary-crossing in “transgressor” visible.
οἰκοδομῶ
oikodomō
GROWS FROM
οἰκοδομέω (oikodomeō), from οἶκος (house) + δομέω (build)
To build a house or construct.
“build” in this verse is oikodomō. The word is a house-building word, and “again” makes the act a return to a former structure. The verse places the builder at the center: the same hands that dismantled now restore it.
ALSO GROWS
oikodomē: A building or construction; also, building up.
οἰκοδομή
It names the structure that the verb “build” brings into being.
oikodomos: A builder.
οἰκοδόμος
The builder is not separate from the structure’s return; the verse says the rebuilding implicates the person doing it.
THE PATTERN
Returning to what has been left behind can restore its hold and expose the one who returns to it.
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.THE THREAD
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;“Built” comes from the same οἰκοδομέω (oikodomeō) house-building word family as “build” here. Ephesians shows a building resting on a foundation; Galatians reveals how rebuilding what has been dismantled makes the builder a transgressor.
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