What Does Galatians 4:22 Mean in the King James?
For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
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
Being called a child does not erase the condition from which a life begins.
THE MEANING
Two lives can share a family and still emerge from very different conditions. The verse holds bondage and freedom beside sonship, keeping both beginnings visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A shared father means both sons come from the same condition.
THE ROOT
ἐλευθέρας
eleutheras
GROWS FROM
ἐλευθερ-
eleuther-
Free, unbound; the stem behind words for freedom and making free.
The word for “freewoman” belongs to the same family as words for both liberty and setting someone free. In this word-family, freedom is a condition and an action that releases.
ALSO GROWS
eleutheria: Freedom, liberty.
ἐλευθερία
The status named in this verse also appears as a state of freedom in Galatians 5:1.
eleutheroō: To set free, make free.
ἐλευθερόω
The same family names the act of making free in John 8:36.
παιδίσκης
paidiskēs
GROWS FROM
παιδ-
paid-
A Greek word-family associated with children and servants; paidiskē means a female slave or servant girl.
The word for “bondmaid” shares a family with Greek words for a child and a servant, bringing those ideas close in the language. Here the woman’s status remains distinct from the freedom named alongside it.
ALSO GROWS
pais: Child, boy or girl; also servant or attendant.
παῖς
This branch shows how the word-family can carry both child and service meanings.
paidion: Little child.
παιδίον
This related child-word makes the family resemblance visible beside the verse’s language of sons.
THE PATTERN
Freedom is a condition with real consequences: it changes what can be inherited and whether bondage continues.
Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.THE THREAD
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.The Greek word-family behind “freewoman” reappears here in “liberty” and “made us free.” That connection opens freedom beyond a woman’s status: it names both a condition and the act of setting free.
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