What Does Galatians 5:20 Mean in the King James?

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Galatians 5:20 · KJV

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 list ends with a word for choosing: division takes shape when a position hardens into a party.

THE MEANING

Rivalry heats into anger, contention grows into separation, and chosen camps harden. The verse names this fracture as a present pattern in shared life.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that a faction is harmless simply because the people inside it feel certain: the verse names faction-making among the forces that fracture life.

THE ROOT

αἱρέσεις

haireseis

GROWS FROM

αἱρέω

haireō

The Greek noun ⁨αἵρεσις⁩ (hairesis) means a choice and can also mean a party or sect formed around a position.

Under “heresies” lies the sense of choosing and, in use, a chosen party or sect. A position can become a boundary between people; the list ends with division made visible in a community.

ALSO GROWS

haireomai: Choose or take for oneself.

αἱρέομαι

This related verb makes the choosing within the word audible: taking a position can become taking a side.

hairetikos: Factious; associated with a party or faction.

αἱρετικός

This related form brings out the social consequence: a chosen position can divide people into competing groups.

THE PATTERN

When allegiance turns into rivalry and faction, shared life breaks into disorder.

A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Proverbs 6:19 · KJVDiscord is pictured as something sown among people, turning their shared life against itself.

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

1 Corinthians 1:10 · KJVThe verse names divisions as a fracture in a community meant to remain joined.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

James 3:16 · KJVRivalry and strife spread beyond disagreement into disorder.

THE THREAD

For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

1 Corinthians 11:19 · KJV

The same Greek noun appears there among people gathered together, showing its force includes factions within a community. That link makes the final word here relational: a chosen position can divide people who share the same space.

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