What Does Romans 7:3 Mean in the King James?
So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
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
“Adulteress” is not a permanent identity here; the name’s force ends when the bond that made it apply ends.
THE MEANING
The verse marks a boundary: while her husband lives, another union is called adultery; after his death, she is free from that law and the same union is no longer called adultery. The status of the bond changes, and with it the name applied to her.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that “adulteress” remains her identity after the bond ends.
THE ROOT
ἐλευθέρα
eleuthera
GROWS FROM
ἐλευθερ-
Greek word-family stem
Free, unbound, at liberty.
The Greek word belongs to a family that names both the state of freedom and the act of freeing. Here, that freedom has a precise scope: she is free from this law’s claim once the bond’s condition has ended.
ALSO GROWS
eleutheria: Freedom, liberty.
ἐλευθερία
It names the state that follows the end of the bond.
eleutheroō: To free, set at liberty.
ἐλευθερόω
It is the same word family in its active form: release from a binding claim.
THE PATTERN
Freedom is a changed status: the former bond no longer governs what the person may do next.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.THE THREAD
The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.“At liberty” translates the same Greek word family, ἐλευθερ-, as “free” here. The repeated word makes the sequence plain: the bond ends, and freedom to marry follows.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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