What Does 1 Corinthians 10:24 Mean?
Let no one seek his own, but the other's.
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
Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.THE KEY
The verse leaves “wealth” unnamed in Greek, opening the other person’s “what is theirs” into the full field of their good.
THE MEANING
The verse places another person’s good inside the field your attention pursues now. The Greek phrase behind “another’s wealth” is literally “what belongs to the other,” with no noun limiting it to money; it can hold the other person’s welfare as a whole. Self and other remain distinct, while concern extends across that boundary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that another person’s need falls outside the scope of the good you seek.
THE ROOT
ζητείτω
zēteitō
GROWS FROM
ζητ-
zēt-
to seek, search for, or pursue
ζητέω (zēteō, “to seek”) describes directed pursuit, not merely noticing another person. Here the pursuit turns outward: the other person’s concern enters the same field of attention as one’s own.
ALSO GROWS
zētētēs: seeker, inquirer
ζητητής
The noun names someone engaged in searching; in this verse, that searching is directed toward what belongs to another.
anazēteō: search for, seek out
ἀναζητέω
Luke 2:44 uses this form when Jesus is searched for among relatives and acquaintances, showing the root as active pursuit.
ἑτέρου
heterou
GROWS FROM
ἑτερ-
heter-
other, another, different
“but the other's” in this verse is heterou. The phrase τὸ τοῦ ἑτέρου (to tou heterou, “what belongs to the other”) leaves its object unstated. The KJV’s “wealth” can carry the other person’s good broadly, beyond material possessions.
ALSO GROWS
heteroglōssos: one speaking another tongue; foreign-tongued
ἑτερόγλωσσος
In 1 Corinthians 14:21, the same root marks a tongue as other, making the otherness here relationally concrete.
heterozygeō: be yoked unequally, be joined with an unlike partner
ἑτεροζυγέω
In 2 Corinthians 6:14, the same root appears in an image of unlike partners joined together; here, the distinct other is the focus of concern.
THE PATTERN
Another person’s good enters the same field of concern as one’s own, carrying care across the boundary of private interest.
If you come upon your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering, you shall surely return it to him.Let each of us please the neighbor for the good, toward the building up.Each of you, do not fix your eyes on your own things, but also on the things of others.THE THREAD
Just as I also please all things to all people, not seeking my own, but what brings the many together, that they may be delivered.The same verb ζητέω (zēteō, “to seek”) appears here beside “mine own profit” and “the profit of many.” The later verse makes the other’s unstated good concrete as benefit shared by many.
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