What Does Romans 3:9 Mean in the King James?
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
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 verse does not rank Jews and Gentiles by how often they miss; it places everyone under the same condition of missing.
THE MEANING
The question of who stands higher has no answer: every person is under sin. That shared condition reaches the reader now; background and moral comparison cannot place anyone outside it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that religious identity or a better moral record makes one group clean and superior before God.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτία
hamartia
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
The Greek word family carries the sense of missing or going wrong.
The English word “sin” can sound like a label for separate bad acts, while “under sin” describes a condition shared by everyone. The word’s family connects that condition to the act of missing: no group stands outside it as the exception.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: to miss, to err, to sin
ἁμαρτάνω
This verb from the same word family shows the action associated with the shared condition named in the verse.
hamartōlos: one who sins; a sinner
ἁμαρτωλός
This related word names a person by the same word family, showing how the language links the miss with the person who misses.
THE PATTERN
No human group or individual can claim a record entirely free of missing.
For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.THE THREAD
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;Romans 3:9 says everyone stands “under sin”; “have sinned” in 3:23 comes from the same Greek word family, ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō), meaning to miss or err. The shared root links the condition to what people do: the verse’s “all” leaves no group outside the pattern.
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