What Does Romans 7:10 Mean in the King James?
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
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 commandment is directed toward life, yet your encounter with it can turn toward death.
THE MEANING
A commandment can be aimed toward life and still become, in your encounter, the path through which death arrives. The verse names that painful reversal; the next verse points to deception through sin as its mechanism.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that anything directed toward life must feel life-giving in every encounter.
THE ROOT
ζωή
zōē
GROWS FROM
ζω-
to live; living life
The ζω- family also gives the verb for making alive, so life here carries the sense of active aliveness, not just a destination. The verse repeats εἰς (eis, toward or into) for both life and death: the shock is the reversal of direction in the encounter.
ALSO GROWS
zaō: to live
ζάω
This verb shares the life word-family behind ζωή and makes its living quality explicit.
zōopoieō: to make alive
ζωοποιέω
The shared ζω- stem links life with the act of making alive, deepening the contrast with the death the verse describes.
THE PATTERN
A word directed toward life can be encountered as death when deception turns its effect.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.THE THREAD
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.The same Greek word, ἐντολή (entolē, commandment), appears in both verses. This next line fills in the reversal: sin takes its opening through the commandment, deceives, and kills.
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