What Does Romans 2:22 Mean in the King James?
Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
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
You can despise the idol’s image while still plundering what is sacred.
THE MEANING
You can name a boundary clearly and still cross it yourself: the same voice says adultery must not be done, then faces the charge of doing it. The verse holds two gestures together, loathing an idol’s image and plundering sacred things. What you condemn aloud does not by itself determine what your actions honor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that recognizing or despising a wrong proves you stand outside it dissolves here; your conduct can contradict the judgment your mouth makes.
THE ROOT
ἱεροσυλεῖς
hierosyleis
GROWS FROM
ἱερο- + συλ- (hieros + syl-)
To plunder a temple or rob what is sacred.
“sacrilege” in this verse is hierosyleis. The Greek verb carries the concrete sense of robbing a temple. The verse sets that act beside the speaker’s loathing of idols: rejecting an image does not prevent someone from taking what belongs to the sacred.
ALSO GROWS
hieros: sacred, consecrated
ἱερός
This supplies the sacred element in the compound.
sylaō: to rob, plunder
συλάω
This supplies the action: the sacrilege is a plundering of what is sacred.
εἴδωλα
eidōla
GROWS FROM
εἰδ- (from εἶδος, eidos)
Form, appearance, visible shape.
The word translated “idols” names images or visible forms. The verse puts contempt for those forms beside the act of robbing sacred things, showing that rejecting a false image can coexist with violating what is sacred.
ALSO GROWS
eidos: form, appearance
εἶδος
This is the word family’s sense of visible form.
eidōlon: image, likeness, idol
εἴδωλον
This singular form is the source of the verse’s plural εἴδωλα.
μοιχεύεις
moicheueis
GROWS FROM
μοιχ- / μοιχευ- (moich- / moicheu-)
Adultery; violation of marital fidelity.
The prohibition and accusation use the same Greek verb: “do not commit adultery” is followed by “you commit adultery?” The action named in the rule is turned directly back onto the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
moichos: adulterer
μοιχός
The same word family names the person who commits adultery.
moicheia: adultery
μοιχεία
This noun names the act that the verb in the verse charges the speaker with committing.
THE PATTERN
A person’s stated standard is exposed by the actions that obey or contradict it.
But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?THE THREAD
For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.Romans uses ἱεροσυλεῖς (hierosyleis), while Acts uses the related form ἱεροσύλους (hierosylous), from the same temple-robbery word family. That family makes the charge concrete: “sacrilege” names plundering a sacred place.
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