What Does Romans 8:20 Mean in the King James?
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
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
Creation’s futility is not its choice: the same Greek verb names its subjection and the one who imposes it, while the sentence holds that condition within hope.
THE MEANING
The world you inhabit is caught in frustration without having chosen it. Its subjection is real, yet it exists within hope; futility is not the final horizon.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that creation’s brokenness is its own fault or proof that it is worthless: the verse names its condition as imposed and still held within hope.
THE ROOT
ὑπετάγη
hypetágē
GROWS FROM
ταγ-/τασσ- (tag-/tass-)
A Greek verb stem meaning to arrange, assign, or place in order.
The sentence repeats the verb ὑποτάσσω (hypotassō, place under or subject): creation ὑπετάγη (hypetágē, was placed under), and the one who subjected it is ὑποτάξαντα (hypotaxanta, the one who placed it under). The phrase “not willingly” makes clear that creation does not choose this condition.
ALSO GROWS
tassō: Arrange, assign, or appoint.
τάσσω
This base verb shows the ordering sense beneath the verse’s language of subjection.
hypotassō: Place under or subject.
ὑποτάσσω
This is the verb repeated in the verse, linking creation’s imposed condition with its source.
diatassō: Arrange, direct, or command.
διατάσσω
This related form also carries the sense of setting something in order.
ματαιότητι
mataiotēti
GROWS FROM
μαται-
matai-
Emptiness or futility: a result that fails to come fully into being.
ματαιότης (mataiotēs, futility or emptiness) opens “vanity” toward the experience of a purpose frustrated, a world unable to arrive at its good. Its related forms describe both what is futile and what is rendered futile.
ALSO GROWS
mataios: Futile or empty.
μάταιος
This adjective carries the same sense of an outcome that does not reach its intended end.
mataioō: Render futile or make empty.
ματαιόω
This verb shows futility as a condition imposed on something, echoing creation’s subjection in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Creation’s frustration is real, yet scripture places it within a movement toward release and renewal.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.THE THREAD
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.Philippians uses ὑποτάσσω (hypotassō, place under or subject), the same verb family repeated in Romans 8:20. There it describes creation’s imposed condition; here the power that subdues all things also changes the body, joining subjection with transformation.
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