What Does Romans 8:22 Mean in the King James?
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
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 pain is described as shared birth labor, not merely as collapse.
THE MEANING
You are part of a creation whose groan is collective, not private; the verse names its present pain with the language of labor. “Until now” keeps that pressure in the present, while the birth-pain verb leaves the ache oriented toward an emergence still underway.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that pain can only mean something is breaking beyond repair: it names creation’s pain as labor.
THE ROOT
συνωδίνει
synōdinei
GROWS FROM
ὠδίνω
ōdinō
To suffer the pains of labor; to be in birth travail.
“travaileth in pain together” in this verse is synōdinei. The verb carries the specific image of birth labor, not just aching. Its prefix συν- (syn, together) makes this a shared labor across creation.
ALSO GROWS
ōdinō: To labor in birth.
ὠδίνω
Galatians 4:19 uses this verb for labor that continues until Christ is formed in the hearers, carrying the image of travail toward emergence.
ōdin: A birth pang or labor pain.
ὠδίν
Matthew 24:8 uses this word for the “beginning of sorrows,” keeping the image of birth pangs rather than generic distress.
συστενάζει
systenazei
GROWS FROM
στενάζω
stenazō
To groan or sigh under pressure.
“groaneth” in this verse is systenazei. The verb gives the pressure a sound: a groan. Its prefix συν- (syn, together) makes that groaning shared, and the next verse uses the same verb of people groaning within themselves as they wait.
ALSO GROWS
stenazō: To groan or sigh.
στενάζω
Romans 8:23 uses the compound form of this verb for people groaning within themselves, bringing creation’s sound into human waiting.
stenagmos: A groan or sigh.
στεναγμός
Acts 7:34 names the groaning of people in Egypt that God hears, joining the sound of distress with the movement toward deliverance.
THE PATTERN
Birth pain names anguish that is real while an emergence is still underway.
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.THE THREAD
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.John uses the same Greek verb ὠδίνω (ōdinō), meaning “to labor in birth,” for anguish before delivery. It opens Romans’ groaning as creation’s unfinished labor, rather than pain with no direction.
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