What Does Hebrews 9:10 Mean in the King James?
Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
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 rules laid upon the body have a limit: they remain only until what is bent is set straight.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you wherever repeated practices seem like the final condition of being whole. It calls that arrangement temporary, bounded by a time of setting things straight. The restoration reaches deeper than repeating outward forms.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that outward observance is itself the final form of wholeness.
THE ROOT
διορθώσεως
diorthōseōs
GROWS FROM
ὀρθ- (orth-, from ὀρθός, orthos)
Straight, upright; the word family carries the image of setting something straight.
The word translated “reformation” names a setting straight, not merely a change of policy. The ordinances have a stated limit: they stand until the order is set right.
ALSO GROWS
orthos: Straight, upright.
ὀρθός
This is the base image behind the word family: what is out of line is brought upright.
diorthoō: Set straight, correct, put right.
διορθόω
This related verb makes the verse’s “reformation” concrete as a setting right.
anorthoō: Raise up, restore, make straight.
ἀνορθόω
This branch links straightening with restoration, giving the verse’s endpoint the shape of something restored.
βαπτισμοῖς
baptismois
GROWS FROM
βαπτ- (bapt-, from βάπτω, baptō)
Dip, immerse.
The word translated “washings” can name ritual immersions, not just ordinary cleaning. Set among bodily regulations and bounded by “until,” these repeated acts belong to an arrangement with a limit.
ALSO GROWS
baptō: Dip.
βάπτω
This root supplies the physical image beneath the washings named in the verse.
baptizō: Immerse.
βαπτίζω
This related verb extends the root’s image from dipping to immersion.
ἐπικείμενα
epikeimena
GROWS FROM
κει- (kei-, from κεῖμαι, keimai)
Lie, be placed, be situated.
The word pictures regulations lying upon people, giving “imposed” a physical sense of something placed on them. Paired with “until,” it makes that weight time-bound rather than final.
ALSO GROWS
keimai: Lie, be situated.
κεῖμαι
This is the underlying image of something resting in a place.
epikeimai: Lie upon, press upon, be imposed.
ἐπίκειμαι
This related verb adds the sense of something laid upon people, matching the verse’s account of regulations with a limit.
THE PATTERN
Outward forms have an appointed season; the setting straight they await reaches deeper than the forms themselves.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.THE THREAD
And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.Both passages draw on ὀρθός (orthos, straight or upright): Hebrews 9:10 names a “setting straight,” while Hebrews 12:13 speaks of making straight paths. The connection places reformation on a path of restoration, where what is lame is healed rather than pushed aside.
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