What Does 1 Corinthians 15:3 Mean?
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.
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 I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;THE KEY
What is received is handed onward, and the message carried through that handoff is that the Anointed One has died for our missing.
THE MEANING
This message reaches you now as something received and handed forward: the Anointed One has died for your missing, in keeping with the Scriptures. Your missing is named plainly, and the verse places his death in direct relation to it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that your missing is outside the scope of what the Anointed One’s death addresses.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτιῶν
hamartiōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss or err; the noun ἁμαρτία (hamartia) means missing or error.
The word translated “sins” grows from a verb of missing. The verse names what is missed directly, while placing the Anointed One’s death in relation to it.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb exposes the movement beneath the noun: missing is an action, not merely a label.
hamartōlos: A sinner; one characterized by missing.
ἁμαρτωλός
The same word family connects the act of missing with the person described by it.
παρέδωκα
paredōka
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give or hand over; παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) means to hand over or pass on.
“delivered” in this verse is paredōka. The speaker says he handed on what he had first received. The message moves through people as a gift passed from hand to hand.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: To hand over or pass on.
παραδίδωμι
This is the verb behind “delivered,” showing that the message is carried onward.
paradosis: A handing down; what is transmitted.
παράδοσις
This related word makes visible the continuing passage of something received.
παρέλαβον
parelabon
GROWS FROM
λαμβάνω
lambanō
To take or receive; παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō) means to receive or accept.
“took from another's hand” in this verse is parelabon. “Received” and “delivered” use different Greek verbs: one takes in, the other gives over. Their shared παρά (para, alongside or from) prefix frames the speaker as a link in a chain of transmission.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: To take or receive.
λαμβάνω
This is the verb at the center of the word translated “received.”
paralambanō: To receive or accept, often from another.
παραλαμβάνω
The compound makes the relational movement of receiving from someone explicit.
THE PATTERN
What is received becomes a living message as it is carried from one person to another.
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers recounted to us.And you shall sharpen them to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.And these things you heard from me among many witnesses, place beside steady people who will be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
Who himself carried our shortcomings in his own body on the tree, that we, dead to shortcomings, might live to alignment; and by his bruises you were healed.“Sins” translates the same Greek word family as the missing named here. This verse opens that phrase further by showing the Anointed One bearing that missing in his body.
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