What Does Philippians 1:21 Mean in the King James?
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
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 sentence puts Christ where you expect the word “life”: living is the Anointed One, and death is counted as gain.
THE MEANING
Your life takes its substance from Christ, the Anointed One; death does not erase that meaning. The verse holds both living and dying within the same reckoning: Christ is life, and death is gain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that death must make a Christ-shaped life finally come to loss.
THE ROOT
ζῆν
zēn
GROWS FROM
ζάω
záō
to live, to be alive
“live” in this verse is zēn. The Greek ties the act of living to the word-family for life itself. That places Christ at the level of life’s substance and source.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: life, existence
ζωή
This is the same life-family used when Christ is called “our life” in Colossians 3:4.
zōopoieō: to make alive, give life
ζωοποιέω
The root family holds both being alive and the giving of life, deepening the verse’s claim about what living is.
Χριστός
Christos
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
to anoint, rub with oil
“Christ” in this verse is Christos. The title carries the action of anointing: Χριστός means the Anointed One, from χρίω, “to anoint.” In this sentence, the content of living is the Anointed One himself.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: to anoint
χρίω
The verb names the action carried in the title Christ.
chrisma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This related word keeps the title connected to the act and condition of anointing.
THE PATTERN
Belonging to God carries the meaning of life across death.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.THE THREAD
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.Colossians calls Christ “our life” with ζωή (zōē), from the same Greek life-family as ζῆν (zēn), “to live,” in Philippians. The shared root makes the equation concrete: Christ is named as the life in which you live.
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