What Does Romans 14:7 Mean in the King James?
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
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 “to himself” is denied twice: the self is not a sealed world in life or in death.
THE MEANING
Your life does not unfold as a private event, and your death is not sealed off from others either. Both are lived within relationship; the self is never the whole horizon of either.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your life affects only you, or that death makes you wholly separate from everyone.
THE ROOT
ἑαυτῷ
heautō
GROWS FROM
αὐτ-
aut-
self; same
“himself” in this verse is heautō. The same reflexive form follows both “lives” and “dies.” The verse denies the self as the sole destination of either state.
ALSO GROWS
autos: self; same
αὐτός
This is the word family at the heart of the repeated “to himself.”
heautou: of himself; his own
ἑαυτοῦ
The same reflexive family appears in 1 Corinthians 10:24 as “his own,” where the self is set beside another.
autarkeia: self-sufficiency
αὐτάρκεια
This word names the idea of sufficing by oneself, the closed horizon the verse denies life and death.
ζῇ
zē
GROWS FROM
ζάω (zaō), stem ζη-/ζω- (zē-/zō-)
to live; to be alive
“liveth” in this verse is zē. The verb belongs to a word family that names life itself and the act of making alive. Here, living is explicitly denied a private destination: no one lives only to himself.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: life
ζωή
The related noun names life as a reality in itself, not merely a private possession.
zōopoieō: make alive; give life
ζωοποιέω
This related verb places living beside life received or imparted, echoing the verse’s refusal to isolate life within one self.
ἀποθνῄσκει
apothnēskei
GROWS FROM
θνῄσκω
thnēskō
to die
“dieth” in this verse is apothnēskei. Death receives the same reflexive limit as life: it too does not terminate at the self. The parallel keeps dying within the same web of relationship.
ALSO GROWS
thanatos: death
θάνατος
The related noun names death, showing the word family beneath the English verb.
thnētos: mortal; subject to death
θνητός
This related word describes the condition of being liable to die, extending the same root beyond the moment of dying.
THE PATTERN
Human life is woven into relationships, so no one exists as a sealed unit.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.THE THREAD
Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.“His own” uses the same Greek reflexive word family as “to himself” here. Romans denies that life and death end at the self; this verse shows the same self placed in relation to another.
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