What Does Hebrews 9:11 Mean in the King James?
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
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 greater tabernacle is not just a better room: its source lies beyond human making and the created order.
THE MEANING
The anointed one stands as high priest over good things still coming into view. The dwelling through which they come is more complete than a human-made structure and does not belong to the created order.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred is accessible only through structures people build.
THE ROOT
κτίσεως
ktiseōs
GROWS FROM
κτίζω
ktizō
To create or bring into being; κτίσις can refer to creation as a whole.
The word translated “building” can name the created order, widening the contrast beyond one human-made sanctuary. The verse locates this dwelling outside what belongs to that order.
ALSO GROWS
ktisis: Creation, or what has been created
κτίσις
It names the order this greater tabernacle does not belong to.
ktisma: A created thing
κτίσμα
It shows the same word family reaching from the act of creating to what is made.
σκηνῆς
skēnēs
GROWS FROM
σκην-
skēn-
A tent or dwelling place.
“tabernacle” in this verse is skēnēs. This tent word also becomes a verb for dwelling. In John, the Word “dwelt” among people using that same word family, joining the image of a tent to presence among the living.
ALSO GROWS
skēnoō: To dwell, or pitch a tent
σκηνόω
John uses this verb for the Word dwelling among people.
skēnos: A tent; a temporary bodily dwelling
σκῆνος
It carries the tent image into language for embodied life.
τελειοτέρας
teleioteras
GROWS FROM
τελει- (telei-), related to τέλος (telos)
Completion; reaching an intended end or goal.
“More perfect” carries the sense of greater completeness, as something brought toward its intended end. The contrast is about a dwelling’s completed character as well as its source.
ALSO GROWS
teleios: Complete, mature, brought to its full measure
τέλειος
It shows the quality of wholeness carried by the comparative in this verse.
teleioō: To bring to completion
τελειόω
It makes the root’s movement toward a completed end explicit.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling exceeds the limits of human-built space while presence still comes near to human life.
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.The word translated “dwelt” shares its Greek word family with “tabernacle” in Hebrews 9:11. The tent image opens into presence among the living, not merely a structure beyond human hands.
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