What Does Philippians 3:4 Mean in the King James?

Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Philippians 3:4 · KJV
The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

“Confidence” and “trust” come from the same Greek word family, making the verse repeat one question: what has persuaded you to rely on it?

The verse meets you wherever confidence rests on what you can claim, carry, or prove. It makes that reliance visible and shows how easily it becomes comparison: “I more.” It speaks now wherever security is measured by having a stronger claim than someone else.

πεποίθησιν

pepoithēsin

GROWS FROM

πείθω

peithō

To persuade or convince; in this word family, to trust or rely with confidence.

The Greek repeats this root in “confidence” (⁨πεποίθησιν⁩) and “trust” (⁨πεποιθέναι⁩). English makes them sound like separate ideas, but the verse echoes the same reliance twice, then names its object: the flesh.

ALSO GROWS

peithō: Persuade, convince; in certain forms, trust or rely.

πείθω

It reveals that confidence is reliance placed in something that has won a person’s trust.

pepoithenai: To have trusted, to rely confidently; the infinitive translated “trust.”

πεποιθέναι

This is the verse’s second use of the same word family, repeating the idea of reliance rather than introducing a different one.

Confidence is never free-floating: its strength rests on whatever a person takes as support.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5 · KJVThe verse makes the object of reliance explicit and contrasts trust in the LORD with leaning on one’s own understanding.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Psalm 20:7 · KJVIt sets confidence in visible strength beside reliance on the LORD’s name, understood as nature.
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
2 Corinthians 1:9 · KJVIt names the self as one possible object of trust and places that reliance in God instead.
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
2 Corinthians 1:9 · KJV

The same Greek form from ⁨πείθω⁩ appears here in “trust in the flesh” and there in “trust in ourselves.” The second verse names a different ground for reliance: God, “which raiseth the dead.”

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Philippians 3:4 KJV Meaning