What Does Romans 7:12 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
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 can expose death without being its source: its own nature remains set apart, aligned, and good.
THE MEANING
The instruction before you is set apart; its commandment is aligned and good. Its goodness is not erased when it brings what is broken into view. The verse separates the character of the instruction from the harm that can work through it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the commandment itself is evil because sin uses it to produce death.
THE ROOT
ἅγιος
hagios
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
Set apart; belonging to what is distinct.
“holy” in this verse is hagios. The same Greek stem describes what is set apart and the act of setting something apart. Its repetition makes holiness a quality of the law and its commandment, not just a title attached to them.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: Set apart; consecrate.
ἁγιάζω
The verb shows the same root in action: what is holy is marked as set apart.
hagiasmos: Consecration; set-apartness.
ἁγιασμός
This noun carries the commandment’s quality into the state of being set apart.
δικαία
dikaia
GROWS FROM
δικ-
What is right or just; aligned with what is due.
“just” in this verse is dikaia. This word belongs to a family that gathers ideas of justice and what is right. “Aligned” makes that relational sense audible: the commandment is not merely set apart, but rightly ordered.
ALSO GROWS
dikē: Justice; what is right.
δίκη
It makes the justice within “just” visible as part of the same word family.
dikaiosynē: Justice; righteousness, or alignment.
δικαιοσύνη
This branch shows the same family describing a state of right alignment.
ἀγαθή
agathē
GROWS FROM
ἀγαθ-
Good; beneficial or sound.
The same word family returns in the next verse, where the text asks whether what is good became death and answers no: sin works death through it. The root keeps the commandment’s goodness intact even as the passage names the harm done through it.
ALSO GROWS
agathos: Good; beneficial.
ἀγαθός
This is the base adjective used to describe the commandment’s nature.
agathopoieō: Do good.
ἀγαθοποιέω
The verb carries the same root into action, showing goodness as something that can be done.
THE PATTERN
Instruction can expose what is broken while remaining good in its own nature.
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;THE THREAD
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.The next verse repeats “good” and “commandment,” then asks whether the good thing became death’s source. Its answer locates death in sin working through the commandment, keeping this verse’s claim about the commandment’s goodness intact.
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