What Does Hebrews 6:17 Mean in the King James?
Where in God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
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 same Greek root under “willing” and “counsel” shows the oath making God’s settled intention visible to the heirs.
THE MEANING
You are shown that the promise rests on a counsel that does not shift. God confirms that steadiness with an oath, making assurance part of what is given to the heirs now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a promise is only as reliable as the circumstances around it: here the ground of certainty is God’s unchanged counsel, confirmed by an oath.
THE ROOT
βουλόμενος
boulomenos
GROWS FROM
βουλ- (βούλομαι / βουλή; boulomai / boulē)
To intend or deliberate; intention, purpose, or counsel.
“willing / counsel” in this verse is boulomenos. The verse uses forms from the same Greek word family for God’s willing and his counsel. What God intends and what his counsel holds are joined at the root: the promise rests on a settled purpose.
ALSO GROWS
boulomai: To will or intend.
βούλομαι
The verse’s “willing” uses this word family, linking God’s intention directly to his counsel.
bouleuomai: To deliberate or plan.
βουλεύομαι
This branch carries the sense of considered purpose, illuminating the counsel that the oath confirms.
ἀμετάθετον
ametatheton
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
To put, set, or place.
The word translated “immutability” is formed with a negating prefix around the idea of shifting or transferring what is set. God’s counsel is presented as beyond alteration, and the oath lets the heirs see that firmness.
ALSO GROWS
metatithēmi: To transfer or change.
μετατίθημι
This related verb makes the contrast clear: the counsel described here is not transferred or changed.
metathesis: A transfer, change, or removal.
μετάθεσις
This related noun shows the movement or change that the word for “immutability” negates.
THE PATTERN
A promise’s reliability is disclosed through God’s steady purpose and reinforced by God’s sworn word.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.THE THREAD
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:The same Greek adjective translated “immutable” appears again as the passage names the “two immutable things.” Here it describes God’s counsel; the next verse shows the promise and oath together anchoring the hope set before you.
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