What Does Hebrews 10:20 Mean in the King James?
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
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 verse identifies the veil as his flesh, so the way into life passes through embodied life.
THE MEANING
You are included in the “us” for whom this living way is inaugurated now. Its passage is through the veil identified as his flesh, binding access to his embodied life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that nearness to God requires leaving the body behind: here, the way passes through flesh.
THE ROOT
σαρκός
sarkos
GROWS FROM
σάρξ
sark-
Flesh; bodily, embodied existence.
The verse itself identifies the veil as his flesh. The threshold is bound to his embodied life; it is not an abstract barrier set apart from him.
ALSO GROWS
sarkinos: Made of flesh.
σάρκινος
This form keeps the root’s concrete, bodily sense in view as the verse names flesh as the passage.
sarkikos: Fleshly; pertaining to flesh.
σαρκικός
This related form shows the same root describing embodied existence, the very life the verse identifies with the veil.
ὁδόν
hodon
GROWS FROM
ὁδός
hod-
A path, road, or way of passage.
Ὁδός names a traversed path. Its compounds ἔξοδος (“way out”) and μέθοδος (“pursuit, procedure”) keep movement visible; here, that path is called living and passes through the veil identified as flesh.
ALSO GROWS
exodos: Departure; a way out.
ἔξοδος
This compound preserves ὁδός as a way of passage, echoing the verse’s language of an opened route.
methodos: Pursuit; procedure.
μέθοδος
The word retains ὁδός inside a course one follows, illuminating the way as something traversed.
ἐνεκαίνισεν
enekainisen
GROWS FROM
ἐγκαινίζω (enkainizō), from the καιν- (kain-) word family
To inaugurate or dedicate; to open something for use anew.
The verb translated “consecrated” carries the sense of inauguration and belongs to the word family of καινός (“new, fresh”). The path is dedicated for passage, giving consecration the feel of an opening.
ALSO GROWS
kainos: New; fresh.
καινός
This related word family gives the act of consecrating an echo of newness.
enkainia: Dedication; inauguration.
ἐγκαίνια
This noun from the same family names a dedication, connecting consecration with opening something to use.
anakainoō: Renew; make new.
ἀνακαινόω
This related form shows the family’s recurring movement toward newness.
THE PATTERN
Access to God’s presence is pictured as a passage through a threshold.
And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.THE THREAD
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.Both verses use ὁδός (hodos, “way”), the word for a path one traverses. Hebrews calls that way living and identifies its threshold as flesh; John places the same path in Jesus’ own words: “I am the way.”
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