What Does 1 Corinthians 16:2 Mean?
On the first day of the week, let each of you lay something by at his own side, storing it up, as his way has gone well for him, so that no gatherings are made when I come.
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
Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.THE KEY
The gift is already being gathered before anyone arrives: each person turns a portion into a stored treasure.
THE MEANING
Shared need is met through portions set aside in advance, each measured by what has come that person’s way. The collection is already taking shape in the ordinary week, before anyone’s arrival calls attention to it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that generosity begins only when someone asks: here, the provision is set aside before the arrival.
THE ROOT
θησαυρίζων
thēsaurizōn
GROWS FROM
θησαυρ-
thēsaur-
Treasure or storehouse; in the verb, to store up or treasure.
“storing it up” in this verse is thēsaurizōn. The English spreads the action across “lay by him in store,” while the Greek uses a compact verb meaning to store up or treasure. The regular setting aside is itself an act of treasuring, though its immediate purpose here is the shared collection.
ALSO GROWS
thēsauros: Treasure; storehouse.
θησαυρός
The noun makes the image behind the verb visible: what is set aside becomes a reserve held in store.
thēsaurizō: To store up; to treasure.
θησαυρίζω
This is the verb’s dictionary form, also used for laying up treasure in Matthew 6:20.
THE PATTERN
Shared provision takes shape through regular, proportionate setting aside before the moment of need.
She prepares her bread in summer, and heaps her food in the reaping.Each one shall give according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers, that they would go on ahead to you and fit beforehand your blessing already promised, so that this may be at hand as a blessing, and not as a grasping.THE THREAD
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust gnaws them out of sight, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal.Matthew uses the same treasure-word as 1 Corinthians: setting something aside is described as treasuring. The destination differs, heaven there, the collection here, but both make deliberate storing visible as an act of placement.
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