What Does Matthew 24:12 Mean in the King James?
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
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
As instructionless disorder spreads, love is not erased but chilled.
THE MEANING
When disregard for instruction expands around you, love among many loses warmth. The verse describes coldness as something that grows alongside lawlessness, not proof that love was never there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Coldness proves love was never real; the verse pictures love being chilled as disorder increases.
THE ROOT
ἀνομία
anomia
GROWS FROM
νομ-
nom-
Instruction or law; the Greek word νόμος (nomos) means instruction or law.
The word translated “iniquity” is ἀνομία (anomia), formed with a prefix meaning “without” around νόμος (nomos), instruction or law. The verse links the spread of instructionless disorder to love losing warmth: lawlessness erodes the shared order in which care can live.
ALSO GROWS
nomos: Instruction; law
νόμος
This is the word at the heart of ἀνομία (anomia), showing the order that lawlessness lacks or rejects.
anomos: Lawless; without law
ἄνομος
This related form makes the “without instruction” sense of the verse’s word visible.
anomia: Lawlessness; iniquity
ἀνομία
This is the word in the verse: a growing condition of life outside instruction.
ψυγήσεται
psygēsetai
GROWS FROM
ψύχω
psychō
To cool or chill.
The verb translated “wax cold” means to be chilled or grow cold. Love remains the subject of the sentence, but its warmth diminishes as lawlessness multiplies.
ALSO GROWS
psychō: To cool; to chill
ψύχω
This is the verb’s root and gives “wax cold” its sense of cooling.
psychros: Cold; chilly
ψυχρός
This related word carries the same coldness into an adjective, making the verse’s image concrete.
THE PATTERN
When disregard for shared instruction spreads, love cools into a failure of care for the neighbor.
They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?THE THREAD
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.Matthew’s ἀνομία (anomia, lawlessness) and Romans’ νόμος (nomos, instruction or law) share the same root. Romans shows love as the lived expression of the order that lawlessness strips away.
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