What Does Hebrews 2:15 Mean in the King James?
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
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
Fear of death does not wait until death: it can hold the whole life in bondage.
THE MEANING
Fear of death can occupy the whole span of your life, making living under its shadow feel like bondage. This verse speaks of deliverance as release from that lifelong subjection; death is still named, but its fear no longer owns every day.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that fear of death is only a last-moment fear: it can govern the years before death by turning a whole lifetime into bondage.
THE ROOT
ἀπαλλάξῃ
apallaxē
GROWS FROM
ἀπαλλάσσω
apallassō
To release, set free, or disengage from a binding condition.
English can make “deliver” sound like rescue from an outside danger; this Greek verb describes release from a binding condition. Here, the fear of death holds people in bondage through life, and deliverance loosens that grip.
ALSO GROWS
apallagē: release, discharge
ἀπαλλαγή
This related noun names release as the result, echoing the verse’s movement out of servitude.
allassō: change, alter
ἀλλάσσω
The shared word family connects release with a change of state; this verse specifies release from fear-driven bondage.
δουλείας
douleias
GROWS FROM
δουλ- (doul-), from δοῦλος (doulos)
Service as a servant; in this verse, servitude that holds a person under its power.
The Greek word for bondage belongs to the same word family as δοῦλος (doulos), “servant,” and δουλεύω (douleuō), “to serve.” It pictures life pressed into the posture of serving what fear dictates, not just a passing feeling of being trapped.
ALSO GROWS
doulos: servant
δοῦλος
The noun shows bondage as a life held in service, rather than a passing sensation.
douleuō: serve, be in servitude
δουλεύω
The verb shows douleia as an ongoing state of service, matching the verse’s emphasis on an entire lifetime.
THE PATTERN
Fear can make the whole span of life feel like servitude, while release opens a way out of its grip.
I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.THE THREAD
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;Both verses use the same Greek word for death, thanatos. Verse 14 names death as the means by which the holder of death’s power is destroyed; verse 15 shows the lifelong bondage created by fear of death.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us