What Does Romans 7:13 Mean in the King James?
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 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 makes the missing visible; the missing, not the good, works death through what is good.
THE MEANING
The good does not become death for you; the missing works death in you through what is good. The commandment makes that missing visible, showing its reach. The verse separates what exposes from what harms.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that the good itself is killing you is undone: the verse locates death in the missing that works through what is good.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτία
hamartia
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss, err, or fail; the root sense of missing.
Hamartia holds the sense of missing within what this verse calls sin. The commandment makes that missing visible, and its death-producing work reveals more than a label could.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb makes the root sense active: sin is a missing at work in you.
hamartōlos: Sinner; one characterized by sin
ἁμαρτωλός
The same word family describes a person in relation to the missing this verse brings into view.
φανῇ
phanē
GROWS FROM
φαν-
phan-
To appear, become visible, or be seen.
“appear” in this verse is phanē. The verse says the missing may be seen for what it is. The commandment exposes its nature; it does not make the good itself the source of death.
ALSO GROWS
phaneros: Visible, manifest
φανερός
It shares the sense of what has been brought into view rather than remaining hidden.
epiphaneia: Appearance, manifestation
ἐπιφάνεια
This branch carries the same movement from hiddenness into visibility.
κατεργαζομένη
katergazomenē
GROWS FROM
ἐργ-
erg-
Work, effect, or produce.
“working” in this verse is katergazomenē. The Greek verb means to bring about or produce. The missing is not merely present in the verse; it brings death about through what is good.
ALSO GROWS
katergazomai: To bring about, accomplish, or produce
κατεργάζομαι
This is the verb form in the verse: the missing produces death through the good.
ergon: Work or deed
ἔργον
The shared erg- family connects the verb’s producing with the work or result it brings about.
THE PATTERN
The commandment reveals the missing, while the missing itself works toward death.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.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.Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.THE THREAD
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.Romans 7:7 names the same hinge: the law is not sin; through it, the missing becomes known. Here the point sharpens: what makes the missing visible is good, while the missing itself works death through that good.
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