What Does Romans 8:21 Mean in the King James?
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
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 itself is moving from decay into the liberty named by the very word that says it will be delivered.
THE MEANING
The created world is not merely the setting for human life; it is itself caught under decay and held toward freedom. That bondage is not its final condition: the verse names release into the liberty belonging to God’s children. The same Greek word-family links being set free with freedom itself, so the release carries its destination within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that decay is the created world’s final condition: this verse names freedom as its destination.
THE ROOT
ἐλευθερωθήσεται
eleutherōthēsetai
GROWS FROM
ἐλευθερ-
Free; set free.
“delivered” in this verse is eleutherōthēsetai. The verb is a form of ἐλευθερόω (eleutheroō, to set free), and “liberty” later in the verse is ἐλευθερία (eleutheria, freedom), from the same word-family. The verse holds release and its destination together: creation is set free into freedom.
ALSO GROWS
eleutheria: Freedom, liberty.
ἐλευθερία
This noun appears in the same verse, naming the destination of the release.
eleutheros: Free.
ἐλεύθερος
This word names the state toward which the created world is released.
φθορά
phthora
GROWS FROM
φθορ- / φθείρ-
Decay, ruin; the process of coming apart.
“corruption” in this verse is phthora. The word can describe deterioration and perishing, not only moral fault. It gives “bondage” a material reach: creation is held under the rule of decay.
ALSO GROWS
phtheirō: To corrupt, ruin, or destroy.
φθείρω
The verb makes the active process behind corruption visible.
phthartos: Perishable, subject to decay.
φθαρτός
This branch describes what is caught in the condition from which creation is released.
κτίσις
ktisis
GROWS FROM
κτιζ-
Create, establish.
κτίσις (ktisis, creation) can name the created order as a whole, not just one creature. The promise therefore reaches creation itself: the world under decay is also the world moving toward freedom.
ALSO GROWS
ktizō: To create, establish.
κτίζω
The verb points back to the act of creating the world that is now promised release.
ktisma: A created thing.
κτίσμα
This related noun emphasizes that the created things themselves are included.
THE PATTERN
Release moves what is bound or barren out of confinement and toward spaciousness and restored life.
He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.THE THREAD
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.“Liberty” is ἐλευθερία (eleutheria), from the same Greek word-family as “shall be delivered” in Romans 8:21. The shared root lets the two verses speak of one movement: being set free from bondage and entering freedom.
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