What Does Galatians 6:2 Mean in the King James?
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
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
Christ’s instruction becomes complete as one person’s weight is carried in shared hands.
THE MEANING
Your burdens are weight, not proof that you have failed. When one person takes up another’s weight, Christ’s instruction is made full between you. The verse presents care as something carried together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that carrying another person’s weight is separate from following Christ; here, it is how his instruction reaches its fullness.
THE ROOT
βάρη
barē
GROWS FROM
βάρος
baros
weight, heaviness
“Burdens” here are weights that press down. Greek words from this root also describe what is heavy and what weighs someone down, so the verse pictures shared care as taking up real weight, not merely feeling sympathy.
ALSO GROWS
barys: heavy, weighty
βαρύς
This branch makes clear that the burden is something with heft; another person’s weight can be heavy enough to need shared carrying.
bareō: weigh down, burden
βαρέω
This branch shows the other side of weight: what presses on a person can be carried by others.
ἀναπληρώσετε
anaplērōsete
GROWS FROM
πληρόω
plēroō
fill, make full, complete
“fulfil” in this verse is anaplērōsete. The verb carries the sense of filling something up to its full measure. Christ’s instruction is not presented as an abstract rule completed in isolation; it reaches fullness in the act of carrying another’s weight.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: fill, complete
πληρόω
This is the core verb beneath “fulfil,” joining completion with the image of something being filled.
plērōma: fullness, that which fills
πλήρωμα
This related word names the fullness that the verb describes; here, shared bearing brings Christ’s instruction to its full expression.
THE PATTERN
A weight that presses on one can become a shared responsibility carried by others.
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.THE THREAD
For every man shall bear his own burden.The same Greek verb, βαστάζω (bastazō, carry or bear), appears in both verses, though verse 5 uses a different word for “burden.” The passage holds shared weight and each person’s own load together: one does not erase the other.
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