What Does 1 Corinthians 1:23 Mean?
But we herald the Anointed One, crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to the nations.
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
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;THE KEY
The cross is where the message of the anointed one catches every expectation that divine power must look triumphant.
THE MEANING
The crucified Christ meets you as a claim that can catch against your own measure of power and wisdom. The verse sets two reactions before you, a stumbling block and foolishness, and shows how your expectations shape what you can receive.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s truth must look powerful or intellectually obvious before it can be trusted.
THE ROOT
σκάνδαλον
skandalon
GROWS FROM
σκάνδαλ-
A trap or trigger that catches the foot and causes a fall.
The Greek word translated “stumblingblock” also names a snare that catches someone; it appears as “offence” in Galatians 5:11. The cross catches against the measure you bring to it, making your expectations visible in the stumble.
ALSO GROWS
skandalon: A snare, trap, or occasion of stumbling.
σκάνδαλον
It shows that the response is a collision with the message, not merely a failure to understand it.
skandalizō: To cause to stumble or entrap.
σκανδαλίζω
This verb from the same word family makes the stumble an event with a trigger: something catches you and brings you down.
ἐσταυρωμένον
estaurōmenon
GROWS FROM
σταυρ-
Stake or cross.
The Greek phrase holds “Christ” and “crucified” together: the anointed one is proclaimed with the cross at the center. The shared stem in “cross” and “crucify” keeps the execution joined to the message rather than letting it fade into the background.
ALSO GROWS
stauros: A stake or cross.
σταυρός
This is the noun behind the instrument at the heart of the proclamation.
staurōsis: Crucifixion.
σταύρωσις
This related noun names the act that the participle “crucified” carries into the phrase.
Χριστόν
Christon
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
To anoint.
“Christ” names the anointed one; it is a title carrying the nature of one set apart by anointing. Here that title stands in the same phrase with “crucified,” holding anointing and the cross together.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: To anoint.
χρίω
This verb is the action from which the title’s meaning grows.
chrisma: Anointing.
χρῖσμα
This related word keeps the title connected to the act and condition of anointing.
THE PATTERN
What appears as a stumbling point under one measure can become the place where God’s wisdom and power are recognized.
And he shall be for a set-apart place; but for a stone of striking and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to those who settle in Jerusalem.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.And a stone to strike against, and a rock that springs the trap, to those who strike against the word and will not yield, and to this they were also set.THE THREAD
And I, brothers, if I still herald circumcision, why am I still pursued? Then the snare of the cross has been made idle.Galatians uses the same Greek word, σκάνδαλον (skandalon), for the cross’s “offence” that 1 Corinthians uses for the “stumblingblock.” The shared word shows that the cross itself is the catch-point: its message trips the measure that wants it made more acceptable.
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