What Does Hebrews 1:12 Mean in the King James?
And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
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 created order can be folded away and changed, while the One addressed remains the same.
THE MEANING
Your world is not fixed: even what seems to be the lasting frame of everything can be folded away and changed. Yet the One addressed here remains the same, and his years do not run out. The verse holds change in the created world beside continuity in God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that because the world changes, the One who sustains it must change with it.
THE ROOT
ἀλλαγήσονται
allagēsontai
GROWS FROM
ἀλλάσσω
allassō
To alter or make different; to become other than before.
“changed” in this verse is allagēsontai. The verb carries the sense of becoming other: the heavens undergo real change, like a garment being replaced. That change is set beside the declaration that the One addressed is the same, so change belongs to the created order, not to God.
ALSO GROWS
allos: Another; other.
ἄλλος
This related word makes the idea inside “changed” visible: what changes becomes other in form.
allagē: Change; alteration.
ἀλλαγή
This noun from the same word family names change as an event, echoing the alteration of the heavens in the verse.
ἐκλείψουσιν
ekleipsousin
GROWS FROM
ἐκλείπω
ekleipō
To leave off, cease, or fail.
The years “shall not fail” means they will not cease or run out. Their continuity stands against the created order that can be folded away and changed.
ALSO GROWS
leipō: To leave; to be lacking.
λείπω
This base verb shows how failure can carry the sense of something leaving or coming up short.
ekleipsis: Eclipse; cessation or disappearance.
ἔκλειψις
This related noun evokes something that seems to vanish, sharpening the claim that the years addressed here do not disappear or cease.
THE PATTERN
The created order can pass or wear out while God’s word and being remain.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.THE THREAD
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,The word translated “changed” here and in Hebrews comes from the same Greek verb, ἀλλάσσω (allassō), meaning “to alter, make different.” In Hebrews, the heavens are changed like a garment; here, mortal life is changed, showing that change can mean transformation rather than disappearance.
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