What Does Romans 15:4 Mean in the King James?
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
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
Scripture keeps hope alive by teaching you how to endure and consoling you where you are.
THE MEANING
What is written meets you now as instruction, giving you words to remain with what is hard and consolation that does not deny it. Through endurance and comfort from the scriptures, hope stays alive in you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hope must wait until hardship passes: here, endurance and consolation sustain hope within the present.
THE ROOT
ὑπομονή
hypomonē
GROWS FROM
μένω (menō), expressed through ὑπομένω (hypomenō)
Remain; in hypomenō, remain under and endure.
The word translated patience is not simply time passing; it is remaining present beneath pressure. Scripture joins that endurance with consolation, so hope can form without requiring the pressure to vanish first.
ALSO GROWS
hypomenō: Remain under; endure.
ὑπομένω
It shows patience as staying with what is difficult while it remains.
menō: Remain; abide.
μένω
Its core sense makes endurance a form of staying, not merely waiting.
παράκλησις
paraklēsis
GROWS FROM
παρακαλέω
parakaleō
Comfort, console, and urge.
The word family of comfort also includes urging: scriptural consolation can steady you and call you onward at once. The comfort here does not erase difficulty; it speaks into the present and accompanies endurance.
ALSO GROWS
parakaleō: Comfort, console, or urge.
παρακαλέω
This verb shows that comfort can both console and strengthen you to continue.
paraklētos: Comforter or advocate.
παράκλητος
This related word carries the family’s sense of support and advocacy.
προεγράφη
proegraphē
GROWS FROM
γράφω
graphō
Write.
“written aforetime” in this verse is proegraphē. The verse repeats the same writing-root: what was written beforehand was written for your instruction. The scriptures themselves are writings, and the repeated root shows those words reaching across time to teach in the present.
ALSO GROWS
graphē: Writing; scripture.
γραφή
The verse’s word for scriptures belongs to the same writing-family.
gramma: A written letter or document.
γράμμα
This related form keeps the root’s concrete sense of words set down in writing.
THE PATTERN
Words that remain available in affliction offer endurance and consolation, keeping hope alive.
This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:THE THREAD
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:The next verse repeats the same words for patience and consolation, then names God as their source. The pair links scripture’s steadying voice with what is given to you now.
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