What Does Galatians 5:7 Mean in the King James?
Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
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
You were already running well; the deeper question is whose persuasion has cut across your stride.
THE MEANING
You know what it is to run well, and you know how something can cut across that movement. The question reaches beyond pace to persuasion: what is now drawing your trust away from what is true? The interruption does not erase the movement that was already real.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A present interruption does not prove your earlier movement was false; the verse names something that has cut into a course that was genuinely going well.
THE ROOT
πείθεσθαι
peíthesthai
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peíthō
Persuade or convince; in the middle or passive voice, be persuaded, trust, or yield.
“obey” in this verse is peíthesthai. The form πείθεσθαι (peíthesthai, “to be persuaded”) shows that obeying truth is also being won over by it. Galatians 5:8 uses this word-family for persuasion, making the interruption a question of what is persuading you.
ALSO GROWS
peíthō: Persuade, convince
πείθω
This is the verb’s basic force; the verse describes a course redirected away from truth’s persuasion.
peismonē: Persuasion
πεισμονή
Galatians 5:8 uses this related word to name the persuasion that does not come from the one calling you.
ἐνέκοψεν
enékopsen
GROWS FROM
κόπτω
kóptō
Cut or strike.
The verb ἐγκόπτω (enkóptō, “hinder, impede”) carries the image of something cutting into a course. The verse recognizes that you have run well while asking what has intruded across that movement.
ALSO GROWS
enkóptō: Hinder, impede, cut into
ἐγκόπτω
This is the word used in the verse: the interruption strikes into forward movement.
ekkóptō: Cut off, cut out
ἐκκόπτω
This related verb makes the cutting image vivid: an obstruction can interrupt the course itself.
ἀλήθεια
alētheia
GROWS FROM
λανθάνω
lanthánō
Escape notice or remain hidden; the truth-word family is traditionally associated with what is not concealed.
The word-family around ἀλήθεια (alētheia, “truth”) is often heard as what is brought out of concealment. Here truth is not merely information held at a distance; it is something you can be persuaded by and follow.
ALSO GROWS
lanthánō: Escape notice, remain hidden
λανθάνω
This word gives the family its image of what lies concealed from view.
alēthēs: True, truthful
ἀληθής
This related form carries the sense of what is genuine rather than concealed.
alētheia: Truth, reality
ἀλήθεια
The verse presents truth as a reality that can guide the runner’s course.
THE PATTERN
The course toward truth opens as what constricts or weighs down movement is removed.
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,THE THREAD
This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.The verb πείθεσθαι (peíthesthai, “to be persuaded”) in this verse shares a word-family with πεισμονή (peismonē, “persuasion”) in the next. That connection sharpens the question: what persuasion is cutting across your course?
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