What Does Hebrews 10:5 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
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
What is prepared here is the giver’s own embodied life, ready to become the offering.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now: the body is where a life becomes available for giving. A separate gift cannot stand in for the person, because the line names a body made ready. The body is part of the offering, not apart from it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an offering can replace the giver: the verse names the prepared body itself.
THE ROOT
κατηρτίσω
katērtisō
GROWS FROM
ἀρτι-
art-
Fit, complete, or bring into readiness.
“prepared” in this verse is katērtisō. The Greek word family carries the sense of fitting something for use, mending it, or bringing it into readiness. So the body is not merely arranged in advance; it is made fit as the form the offering takes.
ALSO GROWS
katartizō: To fit, repair, or bring into readiness.
καταρτίζω
The same verb describes mending nets (Matthew 4:21), letting “prepared” carry the sense of something fitted and made ready.
katartismos: A bringing into readiness or fitness.
κατάρτισμος
This related noun in Ephesians 4:12 connects the word family with being equipped for a purpose.
artios: Complete or suited for its purpose.
ἄρτιος
This related form in 2 Timothy 3:17 shows the family’s sense of fitness and readiness.
THE PATTERN
An offering does not replace a responsive person; the person’s life is what becomes ready to give.
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.THE THREAD
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.Psalm 40:6 speaks of opened ears; Hebrews gives the line as a body prepared. The images meet in a life made responsive: what hears is also what becomes ready to give.
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