What Does Romans 12:2 Mean in the King James?
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
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
“This world” is this age’s pattern, and the mind is renewed so it can discern God’s will instead of simply adopting that pattern.
THE MEANING
The age presses a pattern onto your thinking, but it does not define the shape of your life. As your mind is renewed, you can examine and recognize God’s will as good, pleasing, and complete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that fitting the age’s pattern is the price of knowing what is good.
THE ROOT
αἰῶνι
aiōni
GROWS FROM
αἰων-
aiōn-
An age or era; by extension, the order characteristic of an age.
The verse’s “world” is specifically “this age,” not the physical earth. That makes the warning about the pattern of the present age: a way of thinking that can be mistaken for the only way to see what is good.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age, era, or span of time.
αἰών
This is the word behind “world” here, bringing the age itself into view as a source of pressure.
aiōnes: Ages; the plural of “age.”
αἰῶνες
The plural keeps the word’s time-based sense visible: the present age is one age among others.
μεταμορφοῦσθε
metamorphousthe
GROWS FROM
μορφ-
morph-
Form or shape.
The verse sets μεταμορφοῦσθε (metamorphousthe, “be transformed”) beside συσχηματίζεσθε (syschēmatizesthe, “be conformed to a pattern”). The contrast lets transformation name a changed form of life, rather than a copy of the age’s mold.
ALSO GROWS
morphē: Form or shape.
μορφή
This noun shares the form-root and shows the image carried beneath the English word “transformed.”
symmorphos: Sharing a form; conformed.
σύμμορφος
Romans 8:29 uses this related form-word for being conformed to the image of the Son, showing that transformation has a direction.
ἀνακαινώσει
anakainōsei
GROWS FROM
καιν-
kain-
Newness or freshness; renewal.
“renewing” in this verse is anakainōsei. The renewal word grows from language of newness. The mind takes on newness, and that changed perception makes it possible to examine and recognize what is good.
ALSO GROWS
kainos: New or fresh.
καινός
This root brings the sense of newness into “renewing,” linking the mind’s change to a fresh quality of perception.
anakainoō: Renew or make new.
ἀνακαινόω
This related verb carries the same newness into the act of renewal described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
A renewed mind can test the prevailing age’s patterns and recognize what accords with God.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.THE THREAD
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:Both verses use αἰών (aiōn), meaning “age,” where the KJV says “world.” Galatians describes deliverance from the present age; Romans describes its pattern as something the renewed mind no longer simply wears.
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