What Does 1 Corinthians 11:2 Mean?
Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things and hold fast the things handed down, just as I handed them over to you.
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
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.THE KEY
The same Greek word family lies beneath “ordinances” and “delivered”: what you keep is what has first been handed to you.
THE MEANING
What is entrusted to you stays present through your remembering and keeping it. The verse praises a living chain of reception and preservation: what is handed over continues through those who hold it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that what has been handed down survives on its own; here, its continuity depends on being remembered and kept.
THE ROOT
παραδόσεις
paradoseis
GROWS FROM
παραδίδωμι (para + didōmi)
To hand over, pass along, or entrust.
“the things handed down” in this verse is paradoseis. “Ordinances” and “delivered” echo the same Greek word family: one names what is handed down, the other the act of handing it over. English separates them, while the Greek ties keeping to receiving a transmission.
ALSO GROWS
paradosis: A handing over; what is handed down.
παράδοσις
This is the word rendered “ordinances,” showing them as received teaching carried forward.
paradidōmi: To hand over or deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “delivered,” linking the teaching being kept to the act by which it reaches the reader.
didōmi: To give.
δίδωμι
The compound adds the sense of passing something along, so the verse’s keeping begins with something given into another’s care.
THE PATTERN
What is received stays alive as it is remembered, kept, and passed onward.
And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart.For I handed down to you first of all what I also took from another's hand, that the Anointed One died for our shortcomings according to the writings.And these things you heard from me among many witnesses, place beside steady people who will be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
For I handed down to you first of all what I also took from another's hand, that the Anointed One died for our shortcomings according to the writings.“Delivered” here shares the Greek word family with “ordinances” and “delivered” in 1 Corinthians 11:2. The paired movement is clear: what is received is handed on, and what is handed on can be remembered and kept.
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