What Does Galatians 4:13 Mean in the King James?
Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
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 gospel reaches you through a body with limits, so weakness is inside the scene of proclamation rather than outside it.
THE MEANING
Your body can be weak, and the message can still pass through it; this verse holds both realities together. The limitation does not make the proclamation absent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that bodily weakness makes proclamation impossible or the speaker unfit.
THE ROOT
ἀσθένειαν
astheneian
GROWS FROM
ἀσθεν-
asthen-
Without strength; formed from ἀ- (a-, without) and σθένος (sthenos, strength).
This word holds bodily limitation, a lack of strength, rather than a flaw in character. “Through infirmity” places that limitation in the path of the proclamation; the weakness does not cancel the message’s passage.
ALSO GROWS
astheneō: To be weak or ill.
ἀσθενέω
This branch shows that the word family describes a condition of weakness, including bodily weakness.
asthenēs: Weak, feeble, without strength.
ἀσθενής
This related form names the person or thing as weak, echoing the bodily condition through which the message is spoken.
εὐηγγελισάμην
euēngelisamēn
GROWS FROM
εὐαγγελ-
euangel-
Announce good news; the word family connects the proclamation with the good news itself.
“preached” in this verse is euēngelisamēn. The word for preaching carries the sense of announcing good news. Its family links the message to the act of carrying it, so the verse holds the messenger’s bodily weakness and the news being delivered in the same moment.
ALSO GROWS
euangelion: Good news, gospel.
εὐαγγέλιον
This is the message being announced through the speaker’s bodily weakness.
euangelistēs: Announcer of good news.
εὐαγγελιστής
This branch names the messenger-role implicit in preaching: someone carries the news to others.
THE PATTERN
Weakness does not bar a person from bearing or receiving God’s work.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.The same Greek noun translated “infirmity” in Galatians appears here as “infirmities.” This verse makes explicit what Galatians shows in the act of preaching: weakness and power occupy the same moment.
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