What Does 1 Corinthians 15:24 Mean?
Then comes the end, when he hands over the governance to God and Father, when he has made idle every rule and every authority and strength.
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
Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.THE KEY
The end arrives as a handover: governance passes to the Father while every rule, authority, and power is rendered ineffective.
THE MEANING
Your present world of powers sits inside a larger sequence: governance is handed to God the Father, and every rule, authority, and power is brought to its end. The endpoint is God’s governance, with no competing power left in force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every authority shaping the present is permanent or ultimate dissolves here: every rule, authority, and power has an endpoint.
THE ROOT
παραδίδωμι
paradidōmi
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give; joined with παρά (para), to hand over or pass along.
“hands over” in this verse is paradidōmi. The verb’s core is giving, and the compound carries that giving across as a handover. What reaches the Father is governance itself, so the verse casts the end as an entrusted transfer.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give.
δίδωμι
The base verb keeps the act of giving visible inside the handover of the kingdom.
paradosis: A handing down; something passed on.
παράδοσις
This related word carries the same handing-over family into transmission: what is received can be passed along.
βασιλεία
basileia
GROWS FROM
βασιλε-
basile-
Kingship, reigning, royal rule.
The word holds the activity and sphere of reigning, so the kingdom here is governance itself. Its transfer is a transfer of rule into the Father’s hands, not merely a change of location.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: King.
βασιλεύς
The king belongs to the same word family as the governance handed to God.
basileuō: To reign.
βασιλεύω
This verb makes the active side of the kingdom audible: governance is the act of reigning.
τέλος
telos
GROWS FROM
τελ-
tel-
An endpoint, completion, or goal.
Telos names an endpoint with the force of completion or goal. Here the verse shows what reaches completion: governance is handed over, and every rule, authority, and power is brought to its end.
ALSO GROWS
teleō: To complete or accomplish.
τελέω
The related verb carries the sense of bringing something to its completion.
teleios: Complete; brought to its intended end.
τέλειος
This related form echoes the fullness contained in telos, illuminating the end as a completed sequence.
THE PATTERN
Governance reaches its completion as it belongs to God and every competing authority is brought under his rule.
For the governance is the LORD's, and he rules among the nations.And the seventh messenger blows the trumpet, and great voices sound in heaven, saying, The governance of the world becomes the governance of our Lord and of his Anointed One, and he reigns into the ages of the ages.who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with messengers and authorities and powers placed under him.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.The same Greek verb appears here for what is passed on after it is received. In verse 24, the handover is governance itself, carrying that same movement of transmission into the final transfer to the Father.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us