What Does Hebrews 2:2 Mean in the King James?
For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
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 describes disobedience as hearing past the word, while its recompense is the fitting return for what has been received.
THE MEANING
The word that reaches you has firmness and weight now. The verse names two ways of meeting it, stepping across and hearing past it, and says each receives a fitting return; consequence is not presented as arbitrary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a word can be disregarded without consequence is undone: the verse says that both crossing and hearing past it meet a just return.
THE ROOT
παρακοή
parakoē
GROWS FROM
ἀκούω (akouō), with the prefix παρα- (para-)
ἀκούω means to hear; παρα- adds the sense of beside or aside.
The Greek word makes disobedience a kind of hearing: the sound reaches you, but you hear past it. The verse distinguishes this from transgression, so disregard and crossing over are two different ways of meeting the word.
ALSO GROWS
parakouō: to neglect or refuse to hear
παρακούω
This verb makes the movement plain: disobedience begins as hearing that turns aside.
akoē: hearing, report, or what is heard
ἀκοή
It shares the hearing root and shows that the word’s reception is part of the verse’s concern.
hypakouō: to listen and obey
ὑπακούω
This related compound also centers on hearing, revealing how the same root can describe hearing that responds.
μισθαποδοσία
misthapodosia
GROWS FROM
μισθός (misthos) + ἀποδίδωμι (apodidōmi)
A wage or reward rendered back; a return payment.
“recompense of reward” in this verse is misthapodosia. The word holds payment and return together: what is received answers to what has been done. The same Greek noun can name a reward as well as a consequence, so recompense here is not limited to punishment.
ALSO GROWS
misthos: wage or reward
μισθός
It supplies the payment side of recompense, giving the word its sense of a return received.
apodidōmi: to give back, render, or pay
ἀποδίδωμι
It supplies the returning action: recompense is something rendered in response.
παράβασις
parabasis
GROWS FROM
παραβαίνω (parabainō), from παρα- (para-) + βαίνω (bainō)
To step beside or beyond; παράβασις is the act of crossing a boundary.
Transgression carries the image of a step across a line. Beside the hearing that turns aside, it gives the verse a second picture of how a person can meet the word: by crossing what it marks.
ALSO GROWS
parabainō: to step beyond or transgress
παραβαίνω
The verb makes the crossing image in transgression visible.
bainō: to go or step
βαίνω
This underlying verb supplies the step within the compound, clarifying why transgression is pictured as crossing over.
THE PATTERN
What is heard, chosen, or done bears a fitting consequence.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.The Greek word for “recompence of reward” is the same uncommon word, μισθαποδοσία (misthapodosia), used in Hebrews 2:2. Here it describes a great reward, showing that the word names a fitting return, not punishment alone.
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