What Does Romans 12:14 Mean in the King James?
Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
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 same word for blessing is repeated around persecution, making good speech the frame of the encounter while closing off its verbal opposite.
THE MEANING
Your speech toward the one who presses against you is named twice as blessing. The verse holds the hostility in view and refuses to make a curse its echo: what they do remains what they do, while your spoken response is directed toward good.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another person’s hostility makes cursing back the only honest response.
THE ROOT
εὐλογεῖτε
eulogeite
GROWS FROM
εὖ + λέγω
εὖ (eu, well or good) joined with λέγω (legō, speak): to speak well or invoke good.
“bless” in this verse is eulogeite. The Greek verb keeps “good” and speaking joined: blessing is a spoken orientation toward good, not merely a private feeling. The command repeats this same verb twice, so persecution does not get to determine the kind of word spoken in response.
ALSO GROWS
eulogia: blessing, praise
εὐλογία
This noun carries the same good-speaking into the thing spoken or bestowed.
eulogētos: blessed, worthy of praise
εὐλογητός
This related form describes one who receives or merits a word of blessing.
καταρᾶσθε
katarasthe
GROWS FROM
κατά + ἀρά
κατά (kata, against or down upon) joined with ἀρά (ara, curse or imprecation): to call harm down upon someone.
The verse places blessing and cursing side by side as opposing words directed toward another person. Its final phrase shuts out the curse even while the persecution remains real.
ALSO GROWS
katara: curse, imprecation
κατάρα
This noun names the hostile invocation that the verse forbids.
epikataratos: accursed, under a curse
ἐπικατάρατος
This related form shows the same curse language applied to the state of someone placed under a curse.
THE PATTERN
Hostility does not determine the kind of good word or deed returned toward the hostile person.
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.THE THREAD
Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.Peter uses the same Greek word family: εὐλογέω (eulogeō, bless) appears as “blessing,” and εὐλογία (eulogia, blessing) appears as what is inherited. Romans repeats the verb; Peter links the act of blessing to blessing received.
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