What Does Galatians 6:14 Mean in the King James?
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
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 cross is where the world’s claim on you and your claim on the world are both crucified.
THE MEANING
The cross changes what you can boast in: the world’s measures no longer define your worth, and you no longer belong to its claims. This is a present break in both directions, the world is crucified to you, and you to the world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The world’s approval is not the measure of what is worth boasting in.
THE ROOT
σταυρός
stauros
GROWS FROM
σταυρ-
staur-
The stake or cross, and the act of crucifying expressed by the same Greek word family.
The noun “cross” and the related verb “crucify” share a stem, so the cross here is not merely an emblem: its meaning is enacted in the two-way crucifixion the verse describes. The same word family appears when the speaker says he is crucified with Christ.
ALSO GROWS
stauroō: To crucify
σταυρόω
The verb shares the cross’s lexical stem and makes the image an action, not just an object.
systauroō: To crucify together with
συσταυρόω
This related verb appears in Galatians 2:20, where the speaker describes being crucified with Christ.
κόσμος
kosmos
GROWS FROM
κοσμ-
kosm-
An ordered arrangement or world; by extension, the world and its order.
“World” can name more than the earth: it can name the ordered realm whose claims and measures shape a person’s life. Here that order is not simply rejected from a distance; its claim on the reader is described as crucified.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: To arrange or adorn
κοσμέω
This related verb carries the sense of bringing things into order, illuminating the ordered world meant by kosmos.
kosmikos: Worldly; belonging to the world
κοσμικός
This adjective shows how the word family can describe what belongs to the world’s order whose claim the verse breaks.
καυχῶμαι
kauchōmai
GROWS FROM
καυχ-
kauch-
To boast or make one’s ground for boasting known.
“glory” in this verse is kauchōmai. The verse does not erase boasting; it relocates its ground to the cross. The cross becomes the only basis for the speaker’s confidence, while the world’s measures lose their authority.
ALSO GROWS
kauchema: A boast or ground for boasting
καύχημα
This noun names what a person boasts in, the very ground the verse relocates to the cross.
kauchesis: Boasting
καύχησις
This related noun names the act of boasting, showing that the verse changes its source rather than merely silencing it.
THE PATTERN
The cross breaks the world’s claim on a person and re-centers identity in belonging to Christ.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.THE THREAD
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.The word translated “crucified” belongs to the same Greek word family as “cross” in Galatians 6:14. Galatians 2:20 makes the shared image personal: the world’s claim is broken as the speaker’s life is joined to Christ.
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