What Does Romans 2:23 Mean in the King James?
Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
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 word for breaking pictures stepping across: the instruction claimed as honor becomes the very line crossed in dishonoring God.
THE MEANING
Claiming instruction as your distinction does not, by itself, honor God; the way you cross it gives that claim its visible meaning. The contradiction between the claim and the conduct dishonors God now, in the life that bears the claim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that knowing or publicly claiming the right instruction automatically honors God.
THE ROOT
παράβασις
parabasis
GROWS FROM
βαίνω
bainō
To go or step; in παράβασις, the image becomes stepping across a boundary.
“breaking” in this verse is parabasis. The word carries the movement of crossing over, not merely possessing a broken rule. The verse sets a claim to instruction beside the act of stepping across it: the contradiction itself becomes dishonor.
ALSO GROWS
bainō: To go, step, or walk.
βαίνω
It gives transgression the image of movement: a step that crosses beyond.
parabainō: To step aside or overstep; to transgress.
παραβαίνω
This verb makes explicit the crossing contained in the verse’s word for breaking.
parabatēs: A transgressor; one who steps across.
παραβάτης
It names the person by the same crossing, linking the act to the one who makes the claim.
ἀτιμάζεις
atimazeis
GROWS FROM
τιμή
timē
Value, worth, price, or honor.
“dishonourest” in this verse is atimazeis. The verb negates honor: to dishonor is to treat as lacking worth. Here that denial appears through the gap between claiming God’s instruction and stepping across it.
ALSO GROWS
timē: Honor, value, or price.
τιμή
It shows the worth that the verb denies when God is dishonored.
atimos: Without honor; dishonored.
ἄτιμος
It makes the negation in the verse’s verb visible: honor is treated as absent.
atimia: Dishonor or disgrace.
ἀτιμία
It names the state produced when the claim and conduct contradict each other.
THE PATTERN
A claim about God is made credible or profaned by the conduct attached to it.
And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.THE THREAD
Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,Romans 2:17 uses the same Greek verb καυχάομαι (kauchaomai, to boast or glory) as this verse. It places resting in the instruction beside boasting in God; verse 23 tests that boast against the act of stepping across the instruction.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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