What Does 1 Corinthians 1:31 Mean?
So that, just as it is written, "The one who boasts, let him boast in the LORD."
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
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.THE KEY
In Jeremiah’s source line, boasting and praise grow from the same Hebrew root, so a boast in the LORD becomes an act of praise.
THE MEANING
The verse places your present confidence in the LORD, whose character and work are worthy of honor. Your standing gathers around relationship with God, rather than what you can prove through status or achievement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
My worth is secured by what I accomplish or prove.
THE ROOT
καυχώμενος
kauchōmenos
GROWS FROM
καυχ-
kauch-
Boast, exult, or declare what one takes confidence in.
Paul repeats the same Greek verb in both halves: the one who boasts is told to boast in the Lord. The repetition turns the line toward where confidence rests and what it honors.
ALSO GROWS
kauchēma: A boast; something one boasts in.
καύχημα
It makes visible the thing treated as a ground for boasting.
kauchesis: Boasting; the act of expressing a boast.
καύχησις
It shares the same verbal seed, linking the act of boasting to what is being honored.
יִתְהַלֵּל
yithallēl
GROWS FROM
הלל
halal
Praise; in this form, boast or glory.
“boasts” in this verse is yithallēl. Jeremiah’s Hebrew line, which Paul cites, uses yithallēl from halal, a root also found in Hebrew praise language. The source wording lets boasting and praise meet: naming the LORD as the ground of confidence is itself praise.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise or a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This noun from the same root makes explicit the praise already carried by the boast in the LORD.
hallelu-yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּיָהּ
The familiar call to praise shares the root of Jeremiah’s word for boasting.
THE PATTERN
Confidence rests in the LORD as the source and measure of what is good.
But let the one who boasts boast in this, that he discerns and perceives me, that I am the LORD who does faithful love, judgment, and alignment in the earth. For in these things I delight, says the LORD.So that no flesh might boast before his face.not from works, so that no one might boast.THE THREAD
But let the one who boasts boast in this, that he discerns and perceives me, that I am the LORD who does faithful love, judgment, and alignment in the earth. For in these things I delight, says the LORD.This is the line Paul cites, and its Hebrew word for “glorieth,” yithallēl, comes from halal, the root also found in praise words. Jeremiah names the content of the boast: knowing the LORD and the character the LORD expresses in the earth.
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