What Does Romans 16:13 Mean in the King James?
Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
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
Rufus’s mother is “mine” too: the verse names a kinship that crosses household lines.
THE MEANING
In the Lord, being chosen and belonging to a family of care stand together. Rufus is named as chosen, and his mother is also claimed as mother. The verse presents kinship that reaches beyond one household.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only blood can make someone truly family: Rufus’s mother is also “mine” in the Lord.
THE ROOT
ἐκλεκτόν
eklekton
GROWS FROM
λεγ- (leg-), in ἐκλέγω (eklegō)
Pick out, select; with ἐκ (ek), “out,” the word names one selected.
English “chosen” can sound like a settled label, while its Greek word family keeps selection visible. Rufus is marked out in the Lord, and the verse places that belonging beside the intimate bond of a shared mother.
ALSO GROWS
eklegomai: Choose, select
ἐκλέγομαι
This verb makes the act behind being chosen visible; Luke 6:13 uses it when Jesus chooses twelve disciples.
eklogē: Choice, election
ἐκλογή
The related noun names selection itself; Romans 11:5 uses it for a remnant according to election.
THE PATTERN
Belonging in the Lord takes the form of real kinship that crosses household boundaries.
For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.THE THREAD
To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,Peter uses the same Greek word family for “chosen” when describing the living stone. The word links Rufus’s being chosen in the Lord with what is chosen and precious to God.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us