What Does Romans 3:10 Mean in the King James?

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Romans 3:10 · KJV

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

“Not one” closes the door on the idea that anyone can claim alignment as a private distinction.

THE MEANING

No person stands apart from the shared human condition by possessing an unbroken record of alignment. The verse meets you now by removing the imagined exception: “no, not one.”

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that your own record makes you the one person exempt from this shared condition.

THE ROOT

δίκαιος

dikaios

GROWS FROM

δικ-

dik-

Right, just; what accords with what is due.

English can make “righteous” sound like a moral badge, while ⁨δίκαιος⁩ (dikaios) belongs to a word family about what is right or aligned. The phrase “not even one” removes the claim that anyone possesses this alignment as a private distinction.

ALSO GROWS

dikaiosynē: Righteousness; alignment.

δικαιοσύνη

The related noun names the quality or state that no one here can claim as an exception.

dikaioō: To justify or declare right.

δικαιόω

This verb from the same family shows the language also turns toward being set right, beyond claiming to already stand right.

THE PATTERN

Scripture repeatedly refuses the claim that any person possesses complete alignment on their own.

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Psalm 14:3 · KJVThe psalm echoes the same “not one” pattern, extending the absence of goodness across everyone.

For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 · KJVThe verse refuses the idea that anyone on earth does good without ever missing the mark.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 3:23 · KJVThe next step in Romans makes the shared condition explicit: it reaches all.

THE THREAD

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Matthew 5:6 · KJV

“Righteousness” here is ⁨δικαιοσύνη⁩ (dikaiosynē), from the same ⁨δικ-⁩ (dik-) family as ⁨δίκαιος⁩ (dikaios), “righteous,” in Romans. Romans removes the claim of private alignment; Matthew shows alignment as something one can hunger for and be filled with.

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