What Does Philippians 3:19 Mean in the King James?
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
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
Destruction is already a direction: the appetite enthroned within shapes what is honored and where the mind goes.
THE MEANING
This verse exposes a pattern still present: when appetite takes God’s place, the mind’s horizon narrows to earthly things. What carries weight becomes shame, yet is treated as honor, and the life bends toward loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever satisfies appetite can safely rule a life, or that pride can turn shame into honor.
THE ROOT
ἀπώλεια
apōleia
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
To perish or be lost; in this vocabulary, to lose the way.
The word for destruction belongs to the family of perishing and loss. The verse names the end of a life already moving toward loss as its inner loyalties settle.
ALSO GROWS
apollymi: To perish, destroy, or lose.
ἀπόλλυμι
This verb is the root family behind the noun translated “destruction,” carrying the sense of perishing or being lost.
apolōlōs: Having perished or been lost.
ἀπολωλώς
This form shows the same family describing a state of loss, illuminating the destination named in the verse.
κοιλία
koilia
GROWS FROM
κοιλ-
koil-
A hollow or cavity; the word κοιλία (koilia) means belly and can also mean womb.
“belly” in this verse is koilia. The word names an inner bodily space, and the verse gives that space the place of a god. Appetite becomes the authority ordering the life from within.
ALSO GROWS
koilos: Hollow or hollowed out.
κοῖλος
It preserves the root image of an interior cavity behind the word for belly.
koilia: Belly, abdomen, or womb.
κοιλία
The same word can name the body’s inner space; here appetite in that space is treated as divine authority.
δόξα
doxa
GROWS FROM
δοκ- (dok-, from δοκέω, dokeō)
To think, seem, or regard; by extension, reputation, honor, or the weight assigned to something.
“glory” in this verse is doxa. The word carries the sense of honor or reputation: what is given weight. Here that weight rests in shame, exposing a value system that treats what should be shameful as a distinction.
ALSO GROWS
dokeō: To think, seem, or regard.
δοκέω
The family begins with what is regarded or held to be so, linking the verse’s “glory” to the value assigned.
doxazō: To honor or glorify.
δοξάζω
This branch shows the family describing honor given to someone or something, which the verse locates in shame.
THE PATTERN
Whatever is enthroned as a person’s god shapes the heart’s allegiance and the measure of honor.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.THE THREAD
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.Colossians 3:2 uses the same Greek verb, φρονέω (phroneō, to set the mind or one’s orientation), that appears in “mind earthly things.” The connection reveals the mind’s direction as an orientation: here its horizon is earthly, while Colossians names what it means for that orientation to face above.
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