What Does Galatians 6:5 Mean in the King James?
For every man shall bear his own burden.
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 “burden” each person carries here is not the same Greek word as the weight believers carry for one another two verses earlier.
THE MEANING
Your own work remains yours to carry, even in a community where crushing weights are shared. The verse holds mutual care and personal accountability together without making either cancel the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that accepting help means giving away responsibility, or that carrying your own responsibility means you must carry every crushing weight alone.
THE ROOT
φορτίον
phortion
GROWS FROM
φορτ-
phort-
Cargo or a load: something carried.
The word translated “burden” here is φορτίον (phortion, load), while the same English word in Galatians 6:2 renders βάρη (barē, weights or heavy burdens). English makes the two lines sound like a contradiction; the Greek distinguishes a load each person carries from weights people help carry, so mutual aid and personal responsibility can stand together.
ALSO GROWS
phortos: Cargo, freight, a load.
φόρτος
This related noun makes the image concrete: the verse speaks of something carried, not an abstract fault or failing.
phortizō: To load or burden.
φορτίζω
This related verb shows the same stem in action: a load is placed on someone to carry.
THE PATTERN
Scripture joins shared care with responsibility each person personally carries.
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.THE THREAD
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.Matthew 11:30 uses the same noun φορτίον (phortion, load) for the burden Jesus names. It places personal responsibility beside a load described as light and a yoke described as easy, keeping one’s own load from being mistaken for crushing weight.
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