What Does 1 Corinthians 10:13 Mean?
No test has seized you except what is common to humankind. God is steady, and he will not let you be tested beyond what you are able to carry, but with the test he will also make the way out, so that you can carry it.
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
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.THE KEY
The way out comes alongside the trial so you can endure what is real.
THE MEANING
The pressure you face belongs to human life; it does not make you uniquely trapped. God is firm and steady, and alongside the test there is a way out that makes endurance possible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your trial is uniquely yours and has no way through: the verse calls it human and says an exit accompanies it.
THE ROOT
πειρασμός
peirasmos
GROWS FROM
πείρα
peira
Trial, attempt, or putting something to the test.
The word can name a test or trial, not only an enticement toward wrongdoing. It holds the pressure and the proving together, giving the verse room to speak honestly about what must be endured.
ALSO GROWS
peirazō: To test, try, or tempt.
πειράζω
This verbal form names the testing action contained in peirasmos.
apeirastos: Untried or not subject to temptation.
ἀπείραστος
James uses this related form when describing God as untouched by evil, showing how this word family concerns testing and temptation.
ἔκβασιν
ekbasin from ekbasis
GROWS FROM
βαίνω (bainō), with ἐκ (ek, out of)
Bainō means to go or step; with ek, the compound carries the sense of a going out, an exit, or an outcome.
“the way out” in this verse is ekbasin from ekbasis. The word translated escape pictures an exit or way out. Here that opening comes with the trial so you can bear it; the verse holds deliverance and endurance together.
ALSO GROWS
bainō: To go or step.
βαίνω
Its sense of movement helps show that the way out is a passage, not merely an idea.
basis: A step, footing, or means of going.
βάσις
This related form gives ekbasis its image of a route or exit.
πιστός
pistos
GROWS FROM
πειθ- (peith-), from πείθω (peithō)
To persuade, win trust, or be convinced; the related adjective describes someone reliable and trustworthy.
“steady” in this verse is pistos. The assurance rests on God’s steadiness, not on a promise that pressure will never come. The related word pistis names trust or reliance, keeping the emphasis on what can be relied upon.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: To persuade, trust, or be convinced.
πείθω
Its sense of winning or placing trust illuminates the reliability described by pistos.
pistis: Trust or reliance.
πίστις
This related noun shows the trust that can rest on what is firm and dependable.
THE PATTERN
A real trial can carry an opening for deliverance and the strength to endure.
Many are the evils against the aligned one, but the LORD snatches him out of them all.Flourishing is the man who stays under testing, for having been proven he will take hold of the crown of life, which he has promised to those who love him.The Lord knows how to bring the reverent out of trial, and to keep the unaligned for the day of judgment, to be cut back.THE THREAD
The Lord knows how to bring the reverent out of trial, and to keep the unaligned for the day of judgment, to be cut back.Both verses use πειρασμός (peirasmos, testing or trial) for the pressure. First Corinthians names a way out alongside the test; Peter names the Lord’s deliverance from it, making the opening part of the response to a real trial.
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