What Does Romans 16:17 Mean in the King James?
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
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 verse links faction to a stumbling trap, then makes discernment a turn in your own direction: see what fractures the teaching, and step away from it.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you as someone who can recognize when a voice fractures what you have learned and lays a stumbling point in the shared path. It names two movements: notice the pattern clearly, then turn away from those creating it. Here, discernment includes distance; the split is measured by its relation to received teaching and the stumbling it sets in motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every claim to spiritual belonging deserves continued closeness: the verse places received teaching and the effects of a voice above its claim to belong.
THE ROOT
ἐκκλίνετε
ekklínete
GROWS FROM
κλίνω (klinō; stem κλιν-)
Bend, incline, or turn; with ἐκ- (ek-, out or away), turn aside.
The Greek verb translated “avoid” describes a change of direction, not merely a judgment about someone. The verse makes discernment visible in where your path turns when teaching becomes divisive.
ALSO GROWS
klinō: To bend, incline, or turn.
κλίνω
This is the base sense carried into the verse’s command to turn away.
ekklisis: A turning aside or deviation.
ἔκκλισις
This noun from the same word family makes the movement explicit: avoidance is a turn from a course.
διχοστασίας
dichostasías
GROWS FROM
στάσις (stásis; stem στα-), with διχο- (dicho-, in two)
στάσις means standing, and can also mean a faction or insurrection; διχοστασία means dissension or factional division.
The word for “divisions” is formed around a standing or faction, with the sense of being split into two sides. It points to people being set against one another, not simply to a question that invites discussion.
ALSO GROWS
stásis: A standing; also a faction, dissension, or insurrection.
στάσις
This root carries the sense of a position that can become an active faction.
stasiázō: To stir up faction or engage in dissension.
στασιάζω
This related verb shows the action that grows from a factional stance.
σκάνδαλα
skándala
GROWS FROM
σκανδαλ-
A trap or snare; in New Testament usage, a cause of stumbling.
English “offences” can sound like behavior that merely gives offense; the Greek word carries the image of a trap or stumbling obstacle. Paired with divisions, it shows the split by the fall it sets in someone’s path.
ALSO GROWS
skándalon: A trap, snare, or stumbling block.
σκάνδαλον
This is the singular form of the word translated “offences” here.
skandalízō: To cause someone to stumble or to ensnare.
σκανδαλίζω
This related verb shows what the stumbling block does to the person who meets it.
THE PATTERN
When a voice fractures received teaching and sets stumbling blocks, discernment includes recognizing the source and turning aside.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.THE THREAD
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.Romans 3:12 uses the same Greek verb, ἐξέκλιναν (exéklinan, “they turned aside”), for those who have “gone out of the way.” The shared root makes this verse’s final command a change of direction in the reader’s path.
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