What Does 1 Corinthians 1:18 Mean?
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being delivered it is the power of God.
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
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.THE KEY
The same word of the cross is heard as folly in one present trajectory and encountered as God’s power in another: perishing or being delivered.
THE MEANING
The message of the cross meets you now as either foolishness or God’s power. The Greek describes both those who are perishing and those who are being delivered in the present, placing two living trajectories side by side. Here, God’s power is the force of being brought out of loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a message which sounds foolish must be powerless; the verse names that same message as God’s power to those being delivered.
THE ROOT
σωζομένοις
sōzomenois
GROWS FROM
σῴζω
sōzō
Deliver, rescue, bring into safety.
The Greek form describes those who are being delivered now. Its word family names both deliverance and the deliverer, so God’s power appears here as an ongoing bringing out.
ALSO GROWS
sōtēria: Deliverance, rescue
σωτηρία
This noun names the act or result of being brought out, echoing the verse’s present movement.
sōtēr: Deliverer, rescuer
σωτήρ
This branch names the one who delivers, giving the verse’s power a personal expression.
ἀπολλυμένοις
apollymenois
GROWS FROM
ἀπόλλυμι
apollymi
Perish, destroy, or lose; the word family carries the sense of loss or ruin.
The Greek form describes those who are perishing now, alongside those who are being delivered now. The verse sets two present trajectories beside one another rather than describing two completed states.
ALSO GROWS
apōleia: Loss, destruction, ruin
ἀπώλεια
This noun makes the loss carried by the root explicit, deepening what ‘perish’ holds in the verse.
apolōlos: Lost, one who has perished
ἀπολωλός
Luke uses this form for what is lost and sought; it lets ‘perishing’ also be heard as losing the way.
λόγος
logos
GROWS FROM
λέγω
legō
Say, tell, or express; λόγος is a word, account, or message.
The phrase is the word of the cross: λόγος keeps the message itself in view alongside its public proclamation. The verse then shows what that message becomes in those who hear it.
ALSO GROWS
legō: Say, speak, tell
λέγω
This verb carries the spoken-word sense within the message of the cross.
logizomai: Reckon, account, consider
λογίζομαι
This related word shows the family can also name an account or reckoning, adding depth to λόγος as a formed message.
THE PATTERN
What appears rejected, weak, or lost can become the place where life and power emerge.
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.And he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for strength is carried to its end in weakness." Most gladly, then, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Anointed One may pitch its tent over me.Truly, truly, I say to you. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.THE THREAD
But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the Anointed One, the power of God and the wisdom of God.The same Greek word for power, δύναμις (dynamis), appears in both verses. Verse 18 names the cross as God’s power to those being delivered; verse 24 names Christ as that power.
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