What Does Galatians 5:22 Mean in the King James?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
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 singular “fruit” makes these qualities one harvest of the breath, not separate achievements to manufacture.
THE MEANING
The living breath in you bears a recognizable harvest: love, joy, wholeness, patience that is slow to heat, kindness, goodness, and trust. Each quality is distinct, yet all grow from one source in your life now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that love, patience, or trust must be manufactured as separate achievements; the verse presents them as one harvest from the breath’s life.
THE ROOT
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνε-/πνευ- (pne-/pneu-)
Breathe or blow; breath in motion.
The Greek word translated “Spirit” belongs to the same word family as breathing and blowing. Galatians names the qualities as fruit of this living breath, while John 3:8 uses the same Greek noun for both “wind” and “Spirit.”
ALSO GROWS
pneō: Breathe, blow
πνέω
This verb shares the breath-and-blowing word family, making the movement inside “Spirit” concrete.
pnoē: Breath, blast of air
πνοή
This related noun preserves the breath and wind imagery that English can divide into separate ideas.
μακροθυμία
makrothymia
GROWS FROM
μακρο- + θυμ- (makro- + thym-)
Long + heat or anger: a long interval before the heat rises.
“Longsuffering” carries the image of being slow to heat. The fruit is not numbness; it is heat that does not flare at once.
ALSO GROWS
makros: Long, extended
μακρός
This part of the compound stretches the time before a response rises.
thymos: Heat, anger
θυμός
This is the heat that the word’s “long” quality keeps from rising quickly.
makrothymeō: Be slow to anger; endure patiently
μακροθυμέω
This verb from the same family shows how the long interval before heat becomes a way of responding.
πίστις
pistis
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
Persuade or be persuaded, leading to confidence and trust.
The word family connects trust with being persuaded and with steadiness. Here, faith is trust that leans its full weight, a quality visible alongside the other fruit.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, convince; trust or be persuaded
πείθω
This related verb shows the movement toward confidence beneath “faith.”
pistos: Firm, steady; trustworthy
πιστός
This related form brings steadiness into the same family as trust.
THE PATTERN
The breath’s presence becomes visible through a crop of relational qualities.
Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.THE THREAD
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.The Greek noun πνεῦμα (pneuma, breath or wind) stands behind both “wind” and “Spirit” here, so English separates what the word holds together. Galatians calls the visible qualities fruit of that same moving breath.
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