What Does Revelation 1:5 Mean in the King James?
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
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 KJV says “washed,” while a Greek textual variant says “released”, both images place freedom from our missing in the Lamb’s own blood.
THE MEANING
Jesus Christ stands before us as the steady witness, firstborn from the dead, and ruler over earth’s kings. His love reaches us as cleansing from our missing, through his own blood. The verse holds authority, death, and love together in one person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a ruler proves power by taking life and preserving himself. Here, the ruler is revealed through faithful testimony, death, and love that cleanses.
THE ROOT
λούσαντι
lousanti
GROWS FROM
λούω
louō
To wash or bathe.
The Greek text behind the KJV reads λούσαντι, “washed”; a well-known textual variant reads λύσαντι, from λύω (luō), “released” or “loosed.” That variant makes release audible beside the KJV’s image of cleansing: both readings place freedom from our sins in his own blood.
ALSO GROWS
apolouō: Wash away.
ἀπολούω
Acts 22:16 uses this compound for washing away sins, bringing the cleansing image directly beside the verse’s “sins.”
loutron: Washing or bath.
λουτρόν
This noun appears in Ephesians 5:26 and Titus 3:5, where washing carries the sense of cleansing and renewal.
ἁμαρτιῶν
hamartiōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss, err, or fail to reach.
The verse distinguishes people from their missing: the missing is what is washed away. The root names a miss or failure to reach, opening “sins” as what can be removed rather than an identity that defines the person.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb makes the “missing” in the verse something a person does, rather than what the person is.
hamartōlos: A sinner; one who misses.
ἁμαρτωλός
This related word shows how the language can describe a person by their missing, while Revelation 1:5 speaks of the missing itself being washed away.
πιστός
pistos
GROWS FROM
πείθω
peithō
To persuade or trust; the related adjective carries the sense of being firm, steady, and reliable.
“faithful” in this verse is pistos. The adjective marks someone steady and dependable, a witness whose testimony can be trusted. The verse immediately names him firstborn from the dead, so his life stands behind his testimony.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: Persuade, trust, or be persuaded.
πείθω
The verb’s movement toward trust helps show why πιστός describes someone reliable.
pepoithēsis: Confidence or trust.
πεποίθησις
This related noun makes the root’s connection to reliance visible: the witness is someone others can trust.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, blood marks God’s passage from threat and death toward protection, cleansing, and life.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.THE THREAD
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.In a well-known alternate Greek reading, Revelation 1:5 says λύσαντι, “released us”; this is the same verb family as Jesus’ command λύσατε, rendered “Loose him” here. Beside the title “firstborn from the dead,” the connection turns release into an image of being unbound and brought out of death.
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