What Does Romans 3:19 Mean in the King James?
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before 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 law fences every claim of innocence shut, leaving the whole world accountable before God.
THE MEANING
God’s instruction speaks to those who stand beneath it, and its exposure leaves no mouth able to claim innocence. The whole world stands accountable before God; no one stands outside that reckoning.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a persuasive defense or a cleaner record can make anyone self-justifying before God.
THE ROOT
φραγῇ
phragē
GROWS FROM
φραγ- (phrag-), the stem of φράσσω
To fence in, enclose, or shut off.
“stopped” in this verse is phragē. This is fence language: the mouth is enclosed and shut, not simply quiet by choice. The English hides the image of a barrier closing around every defense, leaving the whole world exposed as accountable before God.
ALSO GROWS
phragmos: A fence, hedge, or enclosure.
φραγμός
This related word names the barrier itself, making the stopped mouth an image of speech fenced in.
phragma: A barrier or partition.
φράγμα
This branch carries the same sense of enclosure: the claim of innocence meets a boundary it cannot cross.
THE PATTERN
When truth exposes human claims of innocence, the mouth that would defend them falls silent.
Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.THE THREAD
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.The same word, νόμος (nomos, instruction), continues into the next verse. There, the instruction makes the missing known; the closed mouths here mark exposure, not a defense that establishes anyone’s innocence.
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