What Does 1 Corinthians 11:14 Mean?
Does not the way things grow itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him?
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
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?THE KEY
The word “nature” grows from a word for growing, so the verse treats the body’s visible growth as a lesson that can be read.
THE MEANING
Nature itself is pictured as a teacher, and the verse calls a man’s long hair a dishonor to him. It treats outward appearance as carrying a meaning others can recognize, and places that judgment specifically on a man wearing his hair long.
THE ROOT
φύσις
physis
GROWS FROM
φύω
phyo
to grow, bring forth
“the way things grow” in this verse is physis. Physis names what grows and comes to be. The verse presents nature as a teacher through visible forms, including the body’s growth.
ALSO GROWS
phyo: to grow, bring forth
φύω
This is the verb beneath “nature,” linking the verse’s lesson to what visibly emerges.
phyton: a plant, something grown
φυτόν
It extends the same growth language to living forms that bring forth according to their nature.
ἀτιμία
atimia
GROWS FROM
τιμή
timē
honor, value; with the privative prefix ἀ-, lack of honor
The word rendered “shame” names dishonor or a loss of esteem. That makes the verse’s judgment a claim about how long hair is valued as a sign, rather than a word for moral failure.
ALSO GROWS
timē: honor, value
τιμή
The contrast with atimia shows that the verse is speaking in the language of honor and regard.
atimazō: to dishonor, treat as having little value
ἀτιμάζω
This related word makes the social force of “shame” visible: it marks how someone is regarded.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays created forms as readable witnesses, with what grows and appears carrying meaning.
And God said, "Let the earth sprout green growth, the seed-bearing plant, and the fruit tree making fruit after its kind, whose seed is in it, upon the earth." And it was so.To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens recount the weight of God; and the expanse sets forth the work of his hands.For this, God gave them over to weightless passions, for their women exchanged the natural use for what lies beside nature.THE THREAD
But if a woman has long hair, it is a weight to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.The next verse uses the related Greek word κόμη (komē, hair), from the same word family as κομάω (komaō, have long hair) here. It gives the sign the opposite value for a woman, making the passage’s gendered reading of hair explicit.
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