What Does Romans 3:2 Mean in the King James?
Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of 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 advantage lies in being entrusted with God’s words: their holder receives them but is not their source.
THE MEANING
God’s words come to you as a trust: you receive what you did not originate. Their worth rests in the words themselves, not in the status of the person who holds them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that receiving sacred words makes their holder their source or owner. The gift is entrusted, not self-made superiority.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστεύθησαν
episteuthēsan
GROWS FROM
πιστεύω
pisteuō
to trust, believe, or entrust
The verb carries the sense of entrusting: God’s words are placed in someone’s care. English “committed” can sound like an action performed by the recipients, while the Greek frames them as receivers of a trust.
ALSO GROWS
pístis: trust, confidence
πίστις
This noun names the trust relationship behind the act of entrusting.
pistós: firm, trustworthy
πιστός
The same word family holds both trusting and being trusted.
λόγια
lógia
GROWS FROM
λόγος
lógos
word, message, or speech
The word translated “oracles” belongs to the family of λόγος, word or message. The verse presents God’s speech as something received and carried forward, not privately invented.
ALSO GROWS
lógos: word, message, or discourse
λόγος
The shared word family makes the “oracles” part of the larger language of a spoken message.
légō: to say or speak
λέγω
This related verb brings out the speech within the oracles: what is entrusted is something spoken.
THE PATTERN
Words received from God are entrusted speech that continues through those who receive and speak them.
He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.THE THREAD
This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:The exact Greek noun translated “oracles” here reappears in Acts, where the fathers receive the oracles “to give unto us.” The movement is visible: the words are passed along as a trust, not held as private property.
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