What Does Titus 1:2 Mean in the King James?
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
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 life you hope for belongs to the ages, and its promise is spoken before those ages begin.
THE MEANING
The life you hope for is the life of the ages, held within God’s purpose. Its promise precedes the ages you inhabit, and the Promiser cannot lie. So your hope has ground beyond what your present circumstances can prove.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your future is only as secure as your present circumstances make it seem.
THE ROOT
αἰωνίου
aiōniou
GROWS FROM
αἰων-
aiōn-
An age, era, or span of time.
“eternal” in this verse is aiōniou. The word carries the sense of what belongs to or endures through the ages. Titus uses this same word family for the life promised and for the times before which it was promised, so the life of the ages is already held in God’s purpose before those ages unfold.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age or era.
αἰών
It opens “eternal life” to the sense of life belonging to the ages.
aiōnios: Of the age or ages; age-long.
αἰώνιος
This adjective describes both the life hoped for and the ages that precede it.
ἐπηγγείλατο
epēngeilato
GROWS FROM
ἀγγελ-
angel-
To announce or convey a message.
“promised” in this verse is epēngeilato. The word for promise belongs to the language of announcing: the hope here rests on a declared word. The verse immediately names the character of the One who speaks, God cannot lie, so the promise carries the reliability of its Promiser.
ALSO GROWS
epangellomai: To promise or declare.
ἐπαγγέλλομαι
This is the verb behind the promise that grounds the hope.
angelos: A messenger, one who carries a message.
ἄγγελος
The shared announce-and-message word family gives a promise the shape of a word sent forth.
ἐλπίδι
elpidi
GROWS FROM
ἐλπ-
elp-
Expectation or hope.
The Greek word for hope is not merely a private wish; it is expectation directed toward what is promised. Here that expectation rests on life of the ages and on the One whose word cannot be false.
ALSO GROWS
elpis: Hope or expectation.
ἐλπίς
This is the noun used for the hope in which the verse is set.
elpizō: To hope or expect.
ἐλπίζω
The related verb shows hope as an orientation toward what is expected.
THE PATTERN
Hope rests on God’s promise, whose truth holds beyond human effort and changing circumstances.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:THE THREAD
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:Titus’s “hope” and Hebrews’ “hope set before us” share the Greek root ἐλπ- (elp-), expectation. Hebrews places that expectation beside God’s impossibility of lying, making explicit why the hope in Titus is secure.
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