What Does 1 Corinthians 10:16 Mean?
Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in common of the blood of the Anointed One? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in common of the body of the Anointed One?
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
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?THE KEY
Communion here is participation held in common: the cup and bread gather many into one shared life.
THE MEANING
The cup and broken bread speak to you now as shared participation in the blood and body of the Anointed One. You receive them within a bond that reaches beyond your private experience, joining you to everyone who shares them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The cup and bread are only a private exchange between you and God.
THE ROOT
κοινωνία
koinōnia
GROWS FROM
κοιν-
koin-
common, shared
“a sharing in common” in this verse is koinōnia. English “communion” can sound like something received alone, but κοινωνία (koinōnia, sharing in common) names participation held in common. The same word describes the cup and bread, so both point to shared participation in the Anointed One’s blood and body.
ALSO GROWS
koinos: common; shared
κοινός
This adjective carries the seed sense of what communion holds in common.
koinōnos: partner; sharer
κοινωνός
A participant is someone who shares in something with others.
koinōneō: to share; participate
κοινωνέω
This verb makes the root’s shared participation an action.
THE PATTERN
Shared participation joins many people to one common life through what they receive together.
And they held fast in the teaching of the sent ones, and in sharing in common, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.For there is one bread, and we, being many, are one body, since we all share in the one bread.If there is therefore any comfort in the Anointed One, if any spoken comfort of love, if any sharing in common in the breath, if any inward parts and compassions,THE THREAD
And they held fast in the teaching of the sent ones, and in sharing in common, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.Acts uses the same Greek word translated “fellowship” that appears here as “communion.” It places that shared participation beside the breaking of bread, making the connection between the table and common life explicit.
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