What Does 1 Corinthians 16:16 Mean?
That you also arrange yourselves beneath such, and beneath everyone who works alongside us and toils.
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
That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth.THE KEY
Here, yielding takes its shape from shared labor: those who carry the work become people the assembly recognizes and makes room for.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the way you relate to people who join the work around you and bear its effort. Their labor makes them worthy of your regard and your willing cooperation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that yielding is owed only to whoever holds the highest title; this verse includes everyone who helps and labors.
THE ROOT
ὑποτάσσησθε
hypotassesthe
GROWS FROM
τάσσω
tassō
to arrange, assign, or put in order
“arrange yourselves beneath” in this verse is hypotassesthe. The verb grows from tassō, to arrange or assign a place. This makes yielding a kind of relational ordering: the verse names those who share and carry the work as people the assembly recognizes within its life.
ALSO GROWS
taxis: order, arrangement
τάξις
This related word makes the ordering sense of submit visible: people take their place in relation to one another.
diatassō: to arrange, prescribe, or direct
διατάσσω
It carries the same root into the act of arranging something, showing the order implied in the verse’s call to yield.
συνεργοῦντι
synergoúnti
GROWS FROM
ἔργον
ergon
work, deed, or task
“works alongside us” in this verse is synergoúnti. The verb rendered “helpeth with us” is synergeō, a word for working together. The people named here are participants in the shared work, not distant benefactors; the next word says they also toil.
ALSO GROWS
synergos: fellow worker, co-worker
συνεργός
This related word names a person who shares the work, making the verse’s emphasis on cooperation concrete.
ergatēs: worker, laborer
ἐργάτης
This work-root branch names the person doing the task, echoing the people whom the verse asks you to recognize.
κοπιῶντι
kopiōnti
GROWS FROM
κόπος
kopos
toil, fatigue, or wearisome effort
“toils” in this verse is kopiōnti. The word carries the strain of labor: not merely being present for the work, but spending effort that can wear a person down. Beside “working together,” it shows both participation and the cost of carrying the task.
ALSO GROWS
kopos: toil, trouble, fatigue
κόπος
This related noun names the weariness bound up with the labor the verse recognizes.
kopiaō: to toil, labor, grow weary
κοπιάω
This verb names sustained effort, giving weight to the verse’s regard for those who keep working.
THE PATTERN
In shared life, yielding and esteem gather around the work people carry for one another.
Placing yourselves under one another in the awe of the Anointed One.But it is not so among you. Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant.And we ask you, brothers, to know those who toil among you, who stand before you in the Lord, and who admonish you. And to hold them very high in love because of their work. Live in wholeness among yourselves.THE THREAD
Placing yourselves under one another in the awe of the Anointed One.Ephesians uses the same hypotassō verb, here explicitly directed “one to another.” That shared root opens this verse’s yielding to co-workers as part of the assembly’s mutual ordering.
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