What Does Romans 1:30 Mean in the King James?
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
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 list gathers around a refusal to be reached: its final “disobedient” carries the sense of being unpersuaded.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of a life in which speech is turned against others, the self is lifted by pride and boasting, harmful acts are devised, and the bond with parents is resisted. Contempt toward God spills into human relationships; these are connected fractures, not unrelated labels. The pattern is present wherever refusal hardens into speech and conduct.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that boastful self-assertion and verbal harm are harmless private traits; here they stand alongside refusal of relationship as parts of one fracture.
THE ROOT
ἀπειθεῖς
apeitheis
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
to persuade, prevail upon, or be persuaded
“disobedient” in this verse is apeitheis. English makes this sound like a simple failure to comply; the Greek word carries the sense of being unpersuaded or unwilling to be won over. The phrase places that refusal in the bond with parents, making disobedience part of the verse’s wider movement away from relationship.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: to persuade or convince
πείθω
This is the verb behind the word’s sense of being persuaded or won over.
apeitheia: unpersuadability, disobedience
ἀπείθεια
This noun names the same refusal to be persuaded that the verse describes.
peitharcheō: to obey authority
πειθαρχέω
This related compound shows the same persuasion-root in a word for yielding to authority.
καταλάλους
katalalous
GROWS FROM
λαλ-
to speak or talk
“backbiters” in this verse is katalalous. The word joins speech with a direction against someone. “Backbiting” therefore sits on the same speech-root as ordinary talking; the harm lies in where the speech is aimed.
ALSO GROWS
laleō: to speak or talk
λαλέω
This verb supplies the speech-root within the word.
katalalia: slander, speech against someone
καταλαλιά
This related word makes explicit the movement of speech against another.
ἐφευρετάς
epheuretas
GROWS FROM
εὑρ-
to find or discover
The root’s sense of finding gives “inventors” a searching quality: harmful acts are devised through active discovery, not merely received. The verse presents this harm as something a person can work out and bring forth.
ALSO GROWS
heuriskō: to find or discover
εὑρίσκω
This verb carries the root meaning behind the word for inventors.
heurēma: a finding or discovery
εὕρημα
This related noun shows the root’s movement from seeking to what is found.
THE PATTERN
When a person refuses to be reached, estrangement travels outward through speech, pride, and damaged bonds.
A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,THE THREAD
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,The Greek repeats ἀλαζόνες (alazones, “boasters”) and ἀπειθεῖς γονεῦσιν (apeitheis goneusin, “disobedient to parents”). The shared wording links self-display and refusal of the parent bond in both passages.
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