What Does Romans 13:9 Mean in the King James?
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
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 prohibitions gather into one measure of love: refusing to treat a neighbor’s life, bond, property, truth, or good as disposable.
THE MEANING
The person near you stands within the same measure you instinctively give yourself. The commands against adultery, killing, stealing, false witness, and coveting gather into one expression of that regard: love your neighbor as yourself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that keeping each command separately is the whole shape of love while the neighbor’s well-being remains outside your concern.
THE ROOT
ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται
anakephalaioutai
GROWS FROM
κεφαλ-
kephal-
Head; by extension, a chief point or heading that gathers what follows.
The verb carries a head or summing-up image: many commands are brought together under one governing statement. “Briefly comprehended” has the force of gathering them into one, not making them disappear.
ALSO GROWS
kephalē: Head
κεφαλή
This is the source image in the word family: the separate commands are gathered under a single heading.
kephalaion: Chief point; sum
κεφάλαιον
This related form names the main point or sum, echoing how the verse gathers several commands into one saying.
ἀγαπήσεις
agapēseis
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπάω
agapaō
To love or hold dear.
The agap- family names both loving and the one held dear. Here love is measured by the regard already familiar in the self, then extended to the neighbor; the verse presents it as the saying that gathers the commands.
ALSO GROWS
agapē: Love
ἀγάπη
The noun form names the love that Romans 13:10 describes as doing no harm to the neighbor.
agapētos: Beloved; dearly loved
ἀγαπητός
This related form names someone as beloved, bringing the family’s regard for the loved one into view.
πλησίον
plēsion
GROWS FROM
πλησι-
plēsi-
Near; close by.
“neighbour” in this verse is plēsion. The Greek word for neighbor is formed from the language of nearness: the neighbor is the one nearby. The love named here is directed toward a person within reach, not an abstraction.
ALSO GROWS
plēsios: Near; neighboring
πλησίος
This related form makes the nearness in “neighbor” explicit.
plēsiázō: Draw near; approach
πλησιάζω
This related verb describes coming near, echoing the closeness carried by the word for neighbor.
THE PATTERN
Separate commands gather into one relational measure: love the neighbor as yourself.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.THE THREAD
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.The same Greek words for love (ἀγάπη, agapē, love) and neighbor (πλησίον, plēsion, the one nearby) appear again. The next verse makes the summary concrete: love does no harm to the neighbor, and in that way the commands find their fulfillment.
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