My Top 11 hard KJV words (with Variable Meanings): Above, after, again, against, that, became, before, by, for, of, without.
1. above — can mean "beyond" or "more than"
2. after — can mean "according to"
3. again — can mean "back" (adverb), e.g. "give again" is "give back" (return sth)
4. against — can mean "ahead of"; "over against" means "across from" ('across' does not exist in KJV)
5. that — can be "that thing" or "what", in places you don't expect. E.g. "You say that I am" = "You say what I am" i.e. "You say that which I am"
6. became — the past-tense of 'to be "becoming of"'
7. before — can be temporal/locative "in front of," "previous to"; or it can make a valuative statement "in the sight of", "in the eyes of"
At John 1:15 "He is preferred before me", John is Not saying "I judge him to be preferred in my sight"
8. by — means "via" OR "alongside": conveyed or directed along by the means of e.g. the river, mountains, path
9. for — can mean "taking the place of": sometimes to continue the thing's purpose, or sometimes to change out the purpose (use context)
10. without — can be "outside": the word 'outside' is not used as a preposition in KJV
11. of —
A. It means 'from' in verb phrases like "borrow of", "buy of", "take of", "exact of"; and to describe nouns as being made from a material ("[Thing] of [Material]").
B. It means 'by' in all Passive-Voice constructions: "it was/is/willbe done of him" (watch for "to be" preceding any verb: am, are, is, was, wilbe, shalbe done of)
C1. It means 'from among' or 'out from' in verb phrases "bring of", "gather of", "give of"; or also, in noun phrases e.g. "one of Israel", "the escaped of Israel";
C2. Easily mistaken for above sense (C1), "of" also functions as a shortening of "some of" or "any of." So rather than "bring from [among] the fruits", the reading may be "bring [some] of the fruits", but this reading is essentially equivalent. It's common in phrases like "eat [any] of," "drink of," "taste of", "see of"(? Isa53:11)
D. It can mean 'deriving from' e.g. "of God," "of old", "of necessity," "of a truth", "of itself", "of his own free will"
E. Conversely, it can mean 'possessed of' e.g. "of a slow tongue", "he is of power," "of one mind/language"
F1. It means 'about' or 'pertaining to' in phrases like "speak of", "hear of", "tell of", "report of", "commune of", "muse of", "think of", maybe "rejoice of"
F2. Similar to above, "of" describes feelings 'due to' or 'owing to' e.g. "sick of [love]", "afraid of [some news]", "in doubt of", "rejoice of", "glad of", "ashamed of", "despair of", "weary of" (and maybe "die of")
G. When linking nouns (as a Genitive marker), "of" creates a whole new term which should be strictly treated the same as a compound-word, not fruitfully analyzed into parts. E.g. there is "sacrifice of God," "sacrifice of the people," & "sacrifice of a ram" (all 3 refer to the same essential thing). Another example: "the fear of God" & "the fear of Isaac" (both refer to a fear toward God, by a person).
H. There is the sense 'deprive of' (extending to "rob of", "strip of", "bereave of", "beguile of"); related to this sense may be "deliver of" and "cure of" ("heal of", "recover of", "be whole of"); maybe also related to "innocent of", "quit of" (but there is also "guilty of").
I. A few additional senses to consider & investigate: "account of" (extending to "take/get knowledge of", "have compassion of", "understand of", "the charge/estimation of", "take care of", "take up of", maybe "doubt of", "be persuaded of");
"skill of"; "chance of"; "accept of"
My Next 10 KJV words (with Precise Meanings): Then, as, could, should, order, since, stay, prevent, want, hard/hardly.
12. then — means "following"; Not "therefore", although it may be valid at times to infer a causative sequence.
13. as — means "just as"; Not "because", Not "while", Not "though"
14. could — is Not "would" or "wish to"
15. should — is Not "ought" or "must"; it resembles "must" in phrases like "commanded that they should" ("commanded to the intent that they")
16. order — is "organize"; Not "command"
17. since — indicates "after the time"; Not "because"
18. stay — is "support", which fits the sense of "a night's stay": "a night's worth of provision"
19. prevent — is "preempt", literally 'come or do before' or 'get in before'
20. want — is "lack"; Not "desire"
21. hard & hardly — is "harsh" or "difficult"; Not "firm", Not "barely"
Tricky 2-Word Phrases: Have to, speak to, use/used to, set by, without hand, give the hand, do to wit, afraid of, so that.
1. have to (literally means "have [at hand, for the purpose of]", and does Not mean "must")
2. speak to ("speak for the purpose of or occasioning of")
3. use/useth to ("is accustomed to using")
4. used to ("was accustomed [to using]", but this is Not to imply 'no longer'!)
5. see to (what's tricky is, "see" on its own may also rarely imply, or be short for, "see to it" - e.g. "see thou do it not")
6. set by ("set value by" or even "set apart") - can read as "set [much/light/etc] by in value"
7. without hand ("out of hand" i.e. "suddenly", "without warning")
8. give the hand to ("give pledge to", or "extend the hand" i.e. pledge help to)
9. do you to wit ("make you to know," or in other words, "I'll have you know")
10. so that — "such that" (phrase doesn't occur in KJV), or as in, "so much so that"; Not "in order that". It can sometimes be a conditional: "given that", "provided that"
"To" has some interesting usages: "to my hurt" (to the occasioning of my hurt); "take to his wife" (take to be his wife).. in earlier Bibles there's also found "take us to his sons" (adopt us to be sons).
The KJV is in Modern English and you can read it. If you got tripped up reading it, it was likely on one of these basic grammar words,
which everybody learned in school up until these last 100 years when they started changing the Bible.
It's not very costly to learn these. It's the legal language which every English speaking nations' founding documents and discourse are written in.
In fact, it's costly to not learn and teach these. It's costly to remove them from the curriculum and pretend they don't exist.
Someone along the way decided it's worthwhile for people to be legally illiterate and cut off from history.
English curriculum today focuses on newer and newer writings, as if they were really so sensational.
The Bible is in legal language which might be called Authorized English, the English of the Authorized Versions of the Bible (1539-1611), preserved by the KJV.
You will encounter 4 types of new (or old) words in the KJV Bible.
- "Easy": Words you've maybe never seen, but you still understand them correctly by context and lay aside without worry.
- "Interesting": Words that are essentially immediately understandable but which take you on a tangent of thought or research.
- "Hard": Words which you certainly don't know, but you may have been tempted to just make a guess to see if it pans out:
make an effort though to stop and look it up, before you grow more comfortable with your working assumption of it. - "False": Words that you "know," but which aren't used in the definitions you expect. These are ones to be watchful of.
(These are 4 types of emotional charges: Clear, fixating, redirecting/skipping/bouncing, and closed-off or "false clear.")
With regard to Type 2 words which point to tough concepts or mysteries, it's best not to try solving them until at least finishing the whole book.
Human, natural (statistical, probabilistic), basic, royal.
The 1st occurrence of a given word will set the precedent for its meaning throughout the entire text, and should be most studied.
Subsequent usages of the word will not radically change its meaning (though it takes new connotation, in the course of story-telling).
When understanding of one word changes, your understanding of whole sections begins to transform too, as you review all its instances.
We get into trouble (confusion) by not knowing the original historical Core Meanings of words, and instead assuming to know.
It's not about etymology, but about the basic logic which shaped the initial meaning, and which informs the modern meaning.
If we try simplifying our vocabulary, we lose the word associations of the original writers, which "dated" translations faithfully preserves.