What Does 1 Corinthians 11:18 Mean?
For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that there are splits among you; and in part I trust 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
For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.THE KEY
People can come together as an assembly while the gathering itself is torn by real divisions.
THE MEANING
You can be gathered with others and still sense a real tear among you. The fracture is named plainly, but the report is only partly trusted, leaving room for what is not yet known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being in the same gathering does not prove that people are united; togetherness can coexist with division.
THE ROOT
σχίσματα
schismata
GROWS FROM
σχίζω
schizō
to split, cleave, or tear apart
The word σχίσματα (schismata) means splits or tears, from σχίζω (schizō), to split. The image is more than disagreement: what is gathered is also being rent apart.
ALSO GROWS
schizō: to split or tear
σχίζω
It names the action beneath the divisions: a tear runs through what is together.
schisma: a split, tear, or rift
σχίσμα
This is the singular form of the word in the verse, making each reported division a distinct rupture.
πιστεύω
pisteuō
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
trust, rely on, or place confidence in
“in part trust” in this verse is pisteuō. The phrase “partly believe it” gives the report only a portion of the speaker’s trust. The fracture is named without claiming complete knowledge of everyone involved.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: trust or confidence
πίστις
It shows the trust-family beneath “believe,” clarifying that the report receives limited confidence.
pistos: firm, steady, or reliable
πιστός
It carries the sense of steadiness that trust rests on, sharpening the difference between partial confidence and certainty.
THE PATTERN
A gathered community can carry a real split within it, and scripture names that rupture as a threat to shared life.
Now I urge you, brothers, by the nature of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no rending among you, but that you be mended together in the same mind and the same judgment.So a split arose among the crowd because of him.So that there would be no split in the body, but that the limbs would tend one another alike.THE THREAD
So that there would be no split in the body, but that the limbs would tend one another alike.“Schism” here and “divisions” in 11:18 come from the same Greek root, σχίζω (schizō), to split or tear. The body image shows the fracture inside a shared life, while the verse’s final phrase names care between members as its counterimage.
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