What Does 1 Corinthians 11:13 Mean?
Judge this within yourselves. Is it fitting that a woman pray to God uncovered?
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
Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?THE KEY
The question makes discernment part of prayer: the community is asked to judge what form of approaching God is fitting.
THE MEANING
The verse puts a question of fittingness before you: is a woman’s prayer to God with her head uncovered fitting? It makes the visible form of prayer part of what is being weighed, while leaving the judgment with the readers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Prayer is only inward, so its visible form can never matter.
THE ROOT
πρέπον
prepon
GROWS FROM
πρεπ-
prep-
Be fitting, be proper, suit the circumstances.
πρέπον (prepon, fitting) frames the question around suitability, not merely attractiveness. The same word family can describe what is seemly or unbecoming, so the verse puts the form of prayer before discernment about its fit.
ALSO GROWS
euprepēs: Seemly, becoming, fitting
εὐπρεπής
It shares the prep- stem and names what appears fitting or becoming.
aprepēs: Unbecoming, unsuitable
ἀπρεπής
It shows the same word family can name what does not fit.
κρίνετε
krinete
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
Distinguish, decide, judge.
κρίνετε (krinete, judge) is a form of κρίνω (krinō, decide or discern). The wording places this decision among the readers, making their discernment part of the verse’s question.
ALSO GROWS
krisis: Judgment, decision
κρίσις
It names the act of reaching a judgment that the verse asks of its readers.
kritēs: Judge, one who decides
κριτής
It names the person exercising the discerning judgment called for here.
diakrinō: Distinguish, discern
διακρίνω
It carries the same krin- root into the act of making distinctions.
ἀκατακάλυπτον
akatakalypton
GROWS FROM
καλυπτ-
kalypt-
Cover, conceal.
ἀκατακάλυπτον (akatakalypton, uncovered) is formed around καλύπτω (kalyptō, cover). The same stem appears in words for a covering and for uncovering or revealing, placing this question about a woman’s head covering within a wider cover-and-uncover word family.
ALSO GROWS
kalymma: Covering, veil
κάλυμμα
It names a covering from the same word family that the verse marks as absent.
apokalyptō: Uncover, reveal
ἀποκαλύπτω
It carries the cover-word into the act of uncovering or making something visible.
THE PATTERN
Scripture weighs visible forms of devotion through discernment while keeping outward appearance from becoming the sole measure.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.Do not take the shape of this age, but be reshaped by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test what is the good, well-pleasing, and complete will of God.Let all things become well shaped, and in rank.THE THREAD
I speak as to the sensible; judge for yourselves what I say.Both verses use κρίνω (krinō, judge): here readers judge whether uncovered prayer is fitting, and there wise readers judge what is said. The shared verb links the question to discernment as an active part of receiving the passage.
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