What Does 1 Corinthians 1:16 Mean?
I also immersed the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I immersed any other.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.THE KEY
Stephanas is named together with his whole household as immersed, while Paul admits he cannot recall whether anyone else was.
THE MEANING
A whole household stands within the verse’s account of immersion, while the speaker marks the edge of what he remembers about others. The line holds communal reach and personal uncertainty together.
THE ROOT
βαπτίζω
baptizō
GROWS FROM
βαπτ-
bapt-
To dip or immerse.
“immersed” in this verse is baptizō. The verb carries the concrete sense of immersing or dipping. Here, that immersion reaches Stephanas’s household, not Stephanas alone.
ALSO GROWS
báptō: Dip or immerse.
βάπτω
This related verb makes the shared image of immersion tangible.
báptisma: Immersion; the act or experience of being immersed.
βάπτισμα
This related noun names the event that the verse expresses with a verb.
οἶκος
oikos
GROWS FROM
οἰκ-
oik-
House or dwelling; by extension, the household associated with it.
The word gives the verse a household-sized scope: the named immersion includes Stephanas’s house-unit. It does not specify who makes up that household.
ALSO GROWS
oikia: House or household.
οἰκία
This related word keeps the home itself and the people associated with it in view.
oikeios: Belonging to a household; a member of a household.
οἰκεῖος
This related word shows how the house can also name those who belong to it.
THE PATTERN
Immersion can mark a whole people or household as entering a shared belonging.
And all were immersed into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.And when she was immersed, and her household, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me steady in the Lord, come into my house and stay there. And she pressed us.And he took them in that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was immersed, he and all his, at once.THE THREAD
And when she was immersed, and her household, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me steady in the Lord, come into my house and stay there. And she pressed us.Acts 16:15 uses the same verb, βαπτίζω (baptizō, immerse), and also names a household as immersed. Read together, the verses show that the household-sized scope named for Stephanas is part of a recurring scriptural expression.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us