What Does Hebrews 6:16 Mean in the King James?
For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
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
An oath is a word placed above words, giving contradiction a boundary where it can stop.
THE MEANING
When claims collide, an oath sworn by one regarded as greater can make the matter firm enough for the contradiction to end. The verse presents the oath as a recognized boundary that settles competing words.
THE ROOT
ἀντιλογία
antilogia
GROWS FROM
λόγος
logos
Word, speech, or account; in ἀντιλογία, a word set against another word.
The word translated “strife” carries the shape of speech answering speech in opposition. The oath supplies a binding word that brings that back-and-forth to an endpoint.
ALSO GROWS
logos: word, speech, or account
λόγος
This is the spoken matter at the center of the contradiction.
antilegō: speak against; contradict
ἀντιλέγω
This related verb shows the same pattern of one word set against another.
βεβαίωσις
bebaiōsis
GROWS FROM
βεβαι-
bebai-
Firmness or becoming established; the word family describes making something firm.
“Confirmation” here has the sense of making a claim firm or established. The oath does more than repeat a claim: it gives the claim a settled standing that allows contradiction to cease.
ALSO GROWS
bebaios: firm, secure, reliable
βέβαιος
This related word expresses the firmness the oath brings to the matter.
bebaioō: make firm; establish; confirm
βεβαιόω
This verb names the act that the noun “confirmation” expresses.
THE PATTERN
Claims gain a binding endpoint when they are confirmed by witnesses or an authority recognized as greater.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.THE THREAD
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,“Greater” in this verse echoes the same Greek word used in Hebrews 6:13. There, the passage reaches the limit of the pattern: God has no greater to swear by, so he swears by himself.
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